Four receive 2026 Right Livelihood Award for rights and democracy work
The Sweden-based prize recognised work on AI bias, defending vulnerable communities, rural women’s rights and Georgian democracy.
The 2026 Right Livelihood Award has gone to AI researcher Timnit Gebru, Pakistani lawyer Jalila Haider, the Rural Women’s Assembly and the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association. The Sweden-based prize recognises work the organisation says contributes to a more just and peaceful world.
The award organisation said this year’s recipients were selected from 200 nominations across 72 countries. Established in 1980 by Swedish-German philanthropist Jakob von Uexkull, the prize is often called the “alternative Nobel”.
Gebru, founder of the Distributed AI Research Institute, was recognised for examining bias in artificial intelligence and challenging concentrated power in the field, according to the jury. The jury’s account says Google dismissed her in 2020 after a dispute over a research paper on bias in large language models.
Haider was honoured for defending vulnerable communities and challenging ethnic, state and patriarchal persecution. The organisation said her work has secured justice for people targeted or ignored by those in power, including ethnic, gender and religious minorities and refugees.
The Rural Women’s Assembly, which represents more than 178,000 small-scale farmers in 11 Southern African countries, was recognised for defending land, seed and bodily autonomy. The organisation said the group also works to preserve local seed varieties.
The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association received the award for work to safeguard democracy and civic power amid what the jury described as an autocratic crackdown. The group was founded in 1994.
