Right Livelihood Awards 2025
➡️ RIGHT LIVELIHOOD AWARD 2025 - Laureates & Ceremony of the Alternative Nobel Prize
The Right Livelihood has celebrated and supported some of the world's most courageous and inspiring people for 45 years. The laureates are honoured for their commitment to solving some of the world's most complex problems.
The awards for this year's four laureates will be honoured at the annual award presentation set to take place on December 2 in Stockholm in front of an international gathering of peers and patrons.
The RLA celebrates achievements, provides long-term support, and raises the profile of those who have shown outstanding commitment to peace, justice, sustainability, and social justice.
Jump straight to our resources on the ➡️ RLA 2025
Explore our comprehensive guides on -
*****
Who are the 2025 RLA Laureates?
Emergency Response Rooms - in Sudan
"For building a resilient model of mutual aid amid war and state collapse that sustains millions of people with dignity."
The Sudanese civil war stems from ethnic tensions, economic disparities, and many years of political instability. Warring factions remain locked in a power struggle, which has led to the death of 150,000 people. In the world's worst displacement crisis, more than 14 million people have been forced to leave their homes.
The Emergency Response Rooms are community-led, volunteer-run networks that provide desperately needed humanitarian assistance to those struggling the most during the war. They deliver essential services like food, water, and medical care, provide protection, and assist with evacuations.
Despite the raging war, they operate in all 18 states, championing a new model for decentralised, locally run aid. Their work puts volunteers at great risk, and members have been detained, tortured, and killed in their mission to protect civilians.
Justice for Myanmar -
"For their courage and their pioneering investigative methods in exposing and eroding the international support to Myanmar's corrupt military."
A military coup d'état has gripped Myanmar since 2021; the junta has killed 6,000 people, arbitrarily detained more than 20,000, and internally displaced more than 3.5 million. Since the takeover, they have subjected civilians to widespread and systematic attacks, bombing schools and hospitals with complete impunity, and blocking humanitarian aid.
For decades, Myanmar authorities have committed a genocidal campaign against the Rohingya, denying them their rights and freedoms, and their capacity to survive. The junta is deliberately restricting aid as part of its ruthless and repressive regime. The year 2024 marked a renewed surge of violence as Rakhine state became trapped in the middle of a brutal conflict between the military and the Arakan Army.
Justice for Myanmar works tirelessly, campaigning for justice and accountability for the people of Myanmar. They expose the countries, companies, and criminals who are profiting from and funding war crimes and country-wide suffering.
They have persuaded multinational corporations to divest hundreds of millions in business dealings to expose and dismantle the military cartel. Their Cartel Finance Map is an eye-opening web of corporations that fund the regime and member states of the ASEAN, who prop up the junta with deals, kickbacks, and shady funding.
Pacific Island Students Fighting Climate Change & Julian Aguon -
"For carrying the call for climate justice to the world's highest court, turning survival into a matter of rights and climate action into a legal responsibility."
In 2019, a group of law students from the University of the South Pacific came up with the idea to approach the UN General Assembly to request an ➡️ advisory opinion from the ICJ on the legal obligations of countries under international law to address the climate crisis.
This bold step by small island nations sought to address the pressing issues of climate justice, debt, mitigation, and adaptation. These nations are the ones who will feel the effects of climate change most severely and are also the ones who contributed the least to it. They won the support of Vanuatu, which spearheaded the initiative and won the backing of many other nations around the world.
On July 23, 2025, the ICJ issued its advisory opinion, which was unanimously adopted by all 15 judges who, for the first time, officially categorised the climate crisis as an "urgent and existential threat" and emphasised that "cooperation is not a matter of choice for states but a pressing need and a legal obligation."
It has helped to highlight the vulnerability of small island nations and proved how collective action and legal accountability are essential tools on the journey to justice and sustainable development. This legal opinion provides judges worldwide with clear guidance on climate litigation and will shape climate jurisprudence for decades.
The ICJ opinion can now be used to demand more ambitious climate protection measures from governments and parliaments, to ensure compliance with the Paris Agreement, and to implement national and international climate laws.
Julian Aguon is a Chamoru human rights lawyer and writer from Guam. He played a central role in the proceedings, and his firm, Blue Ocean Law, provided the legal strategy that carried their demand into the courtroom.
Audrey Tang - Taiwan
"For advancing the social use of digital technology to empower citizens, renew democracy and heal divides."
Digital technology is transforming our democratic processes and reshaping how we engage with political processes. Digital tools are being used in campaigning, in how we communicate with politicians, in how we share our opinions, in how we obtain information, in how we vote, and in how elections are run in general.
These new tools have opened up new avenues for participation, transparency, and accountability. Social media and government forums facilitate public discourse, make it easier to get our voices heard, and allow voters to hold leaders accountable.
Audrey Tang is Taiwan's first digital minister and cyber ambassador. She has proven how technology can be used to deepen trust and give millions a chance to help shape policies. With the mission to fight polarisation and uphold democratic values, her ideas in digital democracy and civic participation are being rolled out across the world to promote open, inclusive, and transparent governance.
Working with governments, civic groups, and the tech industry, she has become a pioneer of the open-source movement, made access to broadband a human right, and used civic hacking to mobilise campaigns against disinformation and deepfakes.
Author: Rachael Mellor, 21.10.25 licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
For further reading on the RLA 2025 see below ⬇️