Three human rights activists, two Anti-corruption fighter, a Farmer and an agricultural scientist – the winners of this year’s Alternative Nobel prize. They come from all over the world.
The winners in custody: Abdullah al-Hamid, Mohammad Fahad al-Qahtani, Waleed Abu al-Khair
“We honor and support the courageous people and organizations with concrete solutions to profound global problems,” – said the organizers of the Alternative Nobel prize in Stockholm. Officially, the prize “Right Livelihood Award” and is awarded since 1980, every year in early December. This year the laureates come from Saudi Arabia, Guatemala, Colombia, Australia and Burkina Faso.
The Human Rights Activists
In your country, you are famous now: Abdullah al-Hamid, Mohammad Fahad al-Qahtani and Waleed Abu al-Khair (the article’s picture) are one of the most prominent human rights lawyers in Saudi Arabia and are closely connected with one of the few human rights organizations in the country, the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA),.
Logo of the Right Livelihood Award
In a country where the ruling family of Al-Saud’s exercised in close Alliance with the ultra-conservative Wahhabi clergy of a totalitarian regime, left the three in their Efforts to reform always faithful. Their demands for the observance of universal human rights, the establishment of a constitutional monarchy and the equality of women in society have always peacefully. A consequence of their actions: All three are sentenced to ten to 15 years in prison and served just to your sentence.
They were awarded “because of their visionary and courageous efforts, based on the Belief in universal human rights, to reform the totalitarian system of rule in Saudi Arabia”.
The Anti-Corruption Fighter
Iván Velásquez and Thelma Aldana
Iván Velásquez (Colombia) and Thelma Aldana (Guatemala) are among the most high-profile Anti-corruption fighters in the world. The two guide since 2014 is the International Commission against impunity in Guatemala (CICIG). This independent body of the UN is in charge since 2006, so, hard to keep track of crime in Guatemala. In a country that still suffers from the consequences of the decades-long civil war (1960 to 1996), Aldana and Velásquez new Standards in the Taking of the law due to set. Due to their tireless work could be made up to this day, more than 60 criminal organisations. There were more than 300 convictions, and 34 legislative reforms to combat corruption. That the two don’t shy away from the big fish, has alone shown the arrest of the former President, Otto Pérez Molina and his Deputy, Roxanna Baldetti, in the autumn of 2015. The lifting of the immunity was a novelty in the history of this Central American country.
The Committee drew you “for your invention approach, a rich and abuse of power to uncover, to track corruption and as a result, the Public trust in public institutions re-establish”.
The Agricultural Scientists
Tony Rinaudo
His nickname is: The Australian Tony Rinaudo is also known as the “forest-maker”. Lived for several decades, the agricultural scientists in Africa and worked. Rinaudo has taken on the task, to the extreme deforestation
and to combat drying of the Sahel. The developed technique is to let the trees from underground root plexuses. Rinaudo referred to as the “underground forests”. The success of his method is impressive: Only in Niger, 50,000 square kilometres of Land have been over the years, over 200 million trees re-established.
What has created Rinaudo over the years, is now much more than an agricultural scientific technology: He has created a whole movement among farmers to want to plant up the Region of the Sahel. The potential appears far from exhausted: With the help of his method, would it be possible for a territory as large as India.
Rinaudo received the Alternative Nobel prize “for his impressive ability, extensive dry areas to transform into fertile soil and to improve the quality of life of millions of people”.
The Farmer
Yacouba Sawadogo
He is the man who “stopped the desert”: Yacouba Sawadogo from Burkina Faso, West Africa started in the year 1980 in order to transform a nearly 40-hectare piece of barren land in the forest area. Today, there are more than sixty species of trees and bushes, it is without a doubt one of the most diverse forest areas in the Sahel. Sawadogos success is due to the fact that he grows trees along with wheat. In the language of the Locals, his method of “zaï” into the root of the trees is conserved rain water longer in the soil, the grain is breeding for feed for the cattle braid. Although he had to fight at the beginning with a lot of resistance – he was referred to as “crazy” and its fields are lit – has he never thought about giving up. Today, he holds seminars in Burkina Faso and Niger, and has helped Thousands of farmers to renew their Land. Apart from the direct effect, to help farmers, could develop the zaï method is an important tool in the fight against causes of Flight and the creation of lasting peace.
The prize Committee praised him “for the fact that he has managed to transform the inhospitable desert land into forest and farmers to teach to your floors with an innovative idea to recover.”