It is in several different areas that the award winners work for change, including to remove social taboos around abortion, against Cambodia’s authoritarian regime, against inhumane treatment of migrants and against environmentally dangerous industries.
– They demand influence in matters where people are affected by irresponsible and corrupt political processes. With their courageous work, they stand up for the environment and every human life, says Ole von Uexkull in the press release.
Here are all the award winners in 2023:
Eunice Brookman-Amissah from Ghana receives the prize for, by sparking debate, paving the way for liberalized abortion laws and improved access to safe abortions in African countries.
Praised for the organization’s courageous work to work for the preservation of Cambodia’s nature in an undemocratic country.
The organization is an association of four offices in France, Italy, Germany and Switzerland and was founded in 2015, as a response to the many deaths in the Mediterranean. Now the organization is again seeing a dramatic increase in the number of dead migrants trying to take the dangerous route across the sea. The death toll so far this year is already over 2,000 – just for the central Mediterranean.
– We are at levels in 2023 that we have not seen since 2017. The death toll is dramatic, the crossing is dramatic, Caroline Abu Sa’da, head of the organization’s office in Switzerland, said in a statement.
Awarded for a pioneering struggle to improve people’s land and environmental rights and for advancing environmental law. Among other things, she has fought for the rights of the residents of Owino Uhuru in Kenya, a community exposed to lead poisoning since a smelter for batteries was established there in 2007.