STOCKHOLM: A youth-led student group and a human-rights lawyer that took the issue of climate to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) received the Right Livelihood prize on Wednesday, dubbed an “alternative Nobel.”
The prize also honored Sudan’s humanitarian aid network Emergency Response Rooms, as well as a Burmese anti-corruption group and a Taiwanese champion of digital democracy.
Frustrated by slow global efforts to tackle climate change, 27 law students at the University of the South Pacific in Vanuatu in 2019 decided to, in their words, “get the world’s biggest problem before the world’s highest court.”
The Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change’s (PISFCC) campaigning culminated in the ICJ in July this year delivering an advisory opinion that states have legal obligations to address climate change.
While not legally binding, advisory opinions carry political and legal weight.
The prize jury hailed the group “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.”
Faced with the threat of rising sea levels and harsher weather patterns in places like the Pacific Ocean, island nations are particularly at risk from climate change.
“It’s an existential problem for young people in countries like Kiribati, in Tuvalu, in Marshall Islands. They’re witnessing the effects of climate change every high tide,” Vishal Prasad, director of PISFCC, said in July.
The group shared the prize with Julian Aguon, a human-rights lawyer from Guam, whose law firm, Blue Ocean Law, developed the legal strategy to carry the case.
The Sweden-based Right Livelihood Foundation also honored Emergency Response Rooms, a community-led grassroots network, for distributing aid during Sudan’s civil war.
The network was described as “the backbone of the country’s humanitarian response amid war, displacement and state collapse.”
Justice For Myanmar (JFM), a covert group of Burmese activists working to expose companies profiting from and propping up the country’s military junta, was also honored.
Taiwanese programmer and cyber ambassador Audrey Tang also received the award for “advancing the social use of digital technology to empower citizens, renew democracy and heal divides,” the jury said in a statement.
The Right Livelihood award was established in 1980, when Swedish-German stamp collector Jakob von Uexkull sold part of his collection to found it, after the foundation behind the Nobel Prizes refused to create new honors in the fields of environment and international development.
Pacific islands youth group wins prize for climate legal action
https://arab.news/4y5ws
Pacific islands youth group wins prize for climate legal action
- Prize also honored Sudan’s humanitarian aid network Emergency Response Rooms
- Burmese anti-corruption group and a Taiwanese champion of digital democracy was feted as well
Palestinian envoy pledges return to UN’s founding ideals in his bid for presidency of General Assembly
- Riyad Mansour presents a vision for his candidacy grounded in the 3 core pillars of the UN: human rights, development, and peace and security
- World of today ‘needs more, not less, United Nations,’ he says. ‘It needs us to honor our commitments … uphold our responsibilities … respect the rules of international law’
As Palestine’s envoy to the UN, Riyad Mansour, launched his candidacy for president of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly, he urged member states to recommit, at this time of growing global division, to multilateral cooperation, the principles of international law and the founding ideals of the UN.
Mansour, whose candidacy was endorsed by the UN’s Arab Group, presented a vision grounded in the three core pillars of the UN: human rights, development, and peace and security.
In his vision statement, he said: “The world we live in today needs more, not less, United Nations. It needs us to honor our commitments, not renege on them; to uphold our responsibilities, not abandon them; to respect the rules of international law, not grow accustomed to their breach.”
The 81st session of the UN General Assembly begins in September, and the election of its president will take place on June 2 in the General Assembly Hall at the UN headquarters in New York. In accordance with the established regional rotation of the position, the next president will be chosen from among the Asia-Pacific group of states.
Two others candidates have announced their intentions to stand so far: veteran diplomats Touhid Hossain from Bangladesh and Andreas S. Kakouris from Cyprus.
Mansour, who has served as the permanent observer of the State of Palestine to the UN since 2005, framed his candidacy through the lens of personal experience, describing himself as “a refugee, a migrant, the son of a steelworker,” who had lived through conflict, poverty and displacement.
“I know what it means when the United Nations is at its best, and I know only too well its shortcomings,” he said.
In his vision, Mansour reflected on the origins of the UN in the aftermath of a global conflict, describing the institution as a response to humanity’s “darkest moments” and a platform designed to replace war with cooperation.
He credited the General Assembly with enabling collective action that has delivered tangible gains, including advances in development, health, human rights and environmental protections.
“Together, we rejected the impulses of war and destruction and chose cooperation, common security and shared prosperity,” he said, citing milestones such as the Millennium Development Goals, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and international agreements on climate change, disarmament and gender equality.
Despite those achievements, however, Mansour warned that many pledges have not been kept and trust in the international system is eroding.
“Too many promises remain unfulfilled, and too much suffering continues,” he said. “The international order has grown increasingly uncertain, and the ideals of the United Nations are too often left unenforced.”
He cautioned against a return to a world in which “conflict prevails over dialogue” and “coercion replaces diplomacy,” arguing that the scale of present-day crises — from armed conflict and humanitarian emergencies to climate change and technological risks — requires a renewed, collective resolve.
“We cannot risk a return to a world where disorder undermines the rule of international law,” Mansour said. “We must rise above division and recommit to partnership.”
He called for reforms within the UN system itself with the aim of improving efficiency, inclusivity and engagement, saying that such changes were necessary to restore confidence in the organization’s ability to deliver peace and security.
“This moment demands engagement grounded in mutual interest and sustained by persistent action,” he said, adding that reform was essential “to restore trust in our United Nations and its enduring capacity to contribute to international peace and security.”
He described his vision as pragmatic rather than ideological, shaped by decades of multilateral diplomacy and a belief in the UN as “an anchor for a more peaceful and just world.”
He continued: “At a time of profound strain on the multilateral system, my vision seeks to mobilize member states and stakeholders to preserve and safeguard what we have accomplished, and to pursue progress with urgency, so that dignity, opportunity and hope are extended to all.”
The president of the General Assembly is elected annually and is responsible for presiding over its sessions, representing its decisions, and facilitating negotiations among member states.
