INTERNATIONAL - In the lead-up to tonight’s Award Ceremony, the Recipients of the 2011 Right Livelihood Awards (often referred to as the “Alternative Nobel Prizes”) presented themselves at a press conference in Stockholm.

Huang Ming (China):

“When I had my baby daughter, I realized that in a couple of decades, when the oil runs out, I will leave this world, but my daughter will have to face a world of cold homes and a polluted environment. Will she then, one day, point at my gravestone and say ‘It is all because you used up the oil’?
I was afraid the next generation would put the blame on us, and that is why in 1995 I turned to engaging in the solar energy business, and established the Himin Solar Energy company. Ever since then our vision and effort has been to bring about a world with blue skies and white clouds for our children and grandchildren, through the global transition to renewable energy.”

Jacqueline Moudeina (Chad):

“In Africa, impunity is a cancer eating away at our continent and preventing us from expressing our true potential. I will continue my struggle for human rights until the cry of those suffering from injustice is heard by their leaders and by the international community. We would have liked to see the former Chadian dictator Habré charged on African soil, but after more than twenty years, we cannot wait anymore. It is time that Senegal extradite Habré to Belgium for his trial.”

Renée Vellvé, representing GRAIN:

“GRAIN calls for an immediate end to the current wave of land grabbing. The flow of money from pension funds, investors and agribusiness to buy up or lease farmland in developing countries must stop now. All the affected lands must be immediately returned to the farmers and local communities.“

“We will not solve the global food crisis until people stop trying to replace small-scale family farming systems with large-scale corporate-controlled industrial approaches. We need a food system that feeds people, not markets.“

Ina May Gaskin (USA):

“I accept the Right Livelihood Award in the name of the midwives, physicians, doulas, and birth activists who affirm childbirth as a creative act, best performed by the mother in the setting of her choice, without unnecessary medical interference being imposed upon her.

Home birth midwives are being persecuted in every country, even in The Netherlands, where home birth services have a long and honorable tradition. Right now, the situation in Hungary greatly disturbs me. Dr. Agnes Gereb has spent more than 20 years trying to defend the fundamental rights of mother and child. For this, she has been imprisoned, recently received a further 2 year prison sentence and has been held under house arrest for the past year. I now ask the Hungarian government to intervene to stop the abuse and unjust treatment of this internationally respected homebirth expert!”

Award Ceremony

It is the Right Livelihood Award Foundation’s 32th Prize Presentation. There are now 145 Laureates from 61 countries.

Huang Ming receives an Honorary Award, the other three Award Recipients share the €150,000 cash award, receiving €50,000 each.

The Right Livelihood Awards will be presented in the Second Chamber of the Swedish Parliament in Stockholm tonight, 5 December. The Award Ceremony starts at 6 pm.

Further information & Media material

The award acceptance speeches will be made available today at 6 pm at our website's Press Room
There will be a live web-stream from the ceremony accessible via our website.

For more information about the Award Ceremony and press accreditation please see our last press release

Further information and material supporting this press release can be accessed via www.rightlivelihood.org

For videos and high-resolution pictures, please also refer to http://download.rightlivelihood.org
Please note that we are going to upload video and pictures from the ceremony to our ftp-server as soon as possible, so please check back.