The Stockholm-based Right Livelihood Foundation honored two women and two organizations led by women on Wednesday for their work against authoritarian rule, violence, gender discrimination and dangers linked to artificial intelligence.
The international award was given to Pakistani female lawyer Jalila Haider, an Ethiopian artificial intelligence researcher, a legal rights organization from Georgia, and a network of women farmers in Southern Africa.
Swedish-German social entrepreneur and philanthropist Jakob Johann von Uexkull established the annual award in 1980. It recognizes efforts that contribute to making the world more just and peaceful and is often referred to as the “Alternative Nobel Prize.”
For the 2026 Right Livelihood Award, 200 nominations from 72 countries were considered.
Haider is the first woman lawyer from Balochistan’s Shia Hazara community and a human rights activist working to protect vulnerable communities from state repression, patriarchal norms, and ethnic violence.
In 2018, she led a seven-day hunger strike against the targeted killing of Hazaras that forced the Army Chief to negotiate directly with Hazara women, resulting in a sustained decrease in attacks against the community.
According to the organization presenting the award, Haider has empowered communities to speak up for their rights through legal assistance and helped thousands of people, including ethnic, religious, and gender minorities and refugees, gain access to justice.
Her law firm has handled more than 7,000 human rights cases and has also helped more than 600 political activists and human rights defenders regain their right to travel freely.
For decades, Pakistan’s Shia Hazara community has faced cross-border terrorism and targeted attacks by banned militant groups, including Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISIS-KP) and the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) with rights groups describing the violence and persecution against the community as amounting to genocide.
The community has also faced repeated massacres and suicide bombings in Afghanistan, where Hazara civilians have been frequent targets of sectarian violence.
Thousands of members of the Hazara community living in and around Quetta were forced to flee Afghanistan to escape persecution and threats to their lives.
