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Issue 62 December 1997 The 1997 Right Livelihood Awards |
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The 1997 Right Livelihood Awards
The 1997 RIGHT LIVELIHOOD AWARD (of approx US$240,000) will be shared by
five outstanding individuals from four continents for their
contributions to a sustainable future for humanity at a ceremony in the
Swedish Parliament, Stockholm, 8 December. The Right Livelihood Award
wishes to honour these activists and scholars from Burkina Faso, France,
Germany, Japan and the USA, recognised for ground-breaking work on
people-centered development, nuclear dangers, toxic chemicals and nature
conservation.
Founded in 1980, the Right Livelihood Awards were introduced “to honour
and support those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most
urgent challenges facing us today”. The idea came from Jakob von
Uexkull, a Swedish philatelic expert, who sold his valuable postage
stamps to provide the original endowment.
Joseph Ki-Zerbo (Burkina Faso)
Joseph Ki-Zerbo, born in 1922, was educated in Burkina Faso and at the
Sorbonne in Paris, graduating with an honours degree in History from the
Institut d’Etudes Politiques in 1955. He returned to Africa and is today
an MP and leader of the opposition party “Parti pour la Democratie et le
Progres (PDP) in Burkina Faso.
In 1980 he founded the Centre d’Etudes pour le Developpement Africain
(CEDA) in Ouagadougou, explaining that:
Joseph Ki-Zerbo, Professor, PO Box 606, CUAGADOUGOU, Burkina
Faso.
The Award recognises their unique partnership in the struggle to rid
humanity of the threat posed by the manufacture, transport, use and
disposal of plutonium. They are honoured "for the scientific rigour of
their research and the effectiveness of their dissemination of its
results, which have served to alert the world to the unparalleled
dangers of plutonium to human life, and empowered many to resist the
misinformation and the secrecy whereby the plutonium industry imposes
these dangers on the public."
Mycle Schneider was born in 1959. Interested in the civil and military
use of nuclear energy and concerned that there was so little
international information available in France, in 1983 he set up
WISE-Paris, as the French Connection of the World Information Service on
Energy (WISE) International.
WISE-Paris defines its objectives as follows:
Jinzaburo Takagi was born in 1939, graduated in 1961 fran the University
of Tokyo and spent four years working for the nuclear industry and
another four years for the nuclear institute at the University of Tokyo,
winning the Asahi Science Encouragenent Award in 1969, gaining his
doctorate in 1969 and being Guest Scientist at the Max Planck Institute
for Nuclear Physics in 1972-73. In 1975 he stepped off the ladder to top
status within the nuclear elite and for the non-profit Citizen’s Nuclear
Information Center (CNIC). Since then he has directed CNIC, reporting on
the results of their analytical and public education work through CNIC
publications in Japanese and English. Takagi has written many books and
articles on nuclear issues, enviroment protection and peace, with
special emphasis on the fight against the nuclear threat as well as
human rights.
Mycle Schneider, WISE-Paris
Jinzaburo Takagi, Citizen’s Nuclear Information Center
The Award honours Michael Succow, born in 1941, for his "exemplary
commitment to safeguard important ecosystems and areas of outstanding
natural value for future generations." Working closely with scientific
colleagues, Succow has seized the opportunities presented by perestroika
and the opening up of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union to
become the principal force in the establishment of nature conservation
reserves – first in his native East Germany and now in several republics
of the former Soviet Union.
Michael Succow, together with fellow scientists and collegues Knapp,
Freude and Jeschke is travelling all over the former Soviet Union and
some other countries, helping to advise the new goverments on land use
and setting up biosphere reserves and national parks. These include
seven in Georgia, covering a third of the country and others covering a
third of Mongolia. They have also been involved in establishing
programmes in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, setting up three
World Heritage Sites in Russia as well as reserves in Russia and
Belarus. In all his work Succow and his colleagues have sought to build
up environmental NGOs in the relevant areas and to ensure the full
participation of the local population.
Michael Succow, Botanisches Institut der Universitat Greifswald
Twelve years ago Cindy Duehring, born 1962 in Bismarck, North Dakota,
experienced a reaction to toxic chemicals that now confines her to her
home. Nevertheless her subsequent research into the sources and effects
of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) has made her an internationally
recognised authority on the threats posed to our health by the cocktail
of toxic chemicals, many of them inadquately researched for their
effects on humans, that are now routinely encountered in our daily
lives.
Cindy Duehring is being honoured "for her extraordinary courage and
determination to put her personal tragedy at the service of humanity by
generating the knowledge that can help others understand and combat the
risks that toxic chemicals present to human life and health."
In 1986 Duehring founded the Environmental Access Research Network
(EARN) of which she is the Director. After working closely together for
five years, in 1994 EARN merged with and became the research division of
the Chemical Injury Information Network (CIIN) which has over 5,000
members in 32 countries. In 1993 Duehring became Managing Editor of
INFORMED CONSENT, the Magazine on Health, Prevention, and Environmental
News.
Cindy Duehring, Environmental Access Research Network
"CEDA conducts research which is actually rooted in our land for the
purpose of determining one or more global hypotheses of understanding,
liable to inspire action by Africans and capable of integrating
ecological preservation, the social praxis and cultural identity, key
sectors which are almost invariably treated as secondary in developmnt
projects. To what extent have ideologies, and specifically imperialism,
transformed the African system? What are the living roots of socialim in
Africa? These are fundamental questions calling for fundamental study
linked to the practices of the Africans themselves."
The three strands of Ki-Zerbo’s life and work – historian, action
researcher and advocate for endogenous development, and politician – are
closely linked: his profound understanding of Africa’s past is the
bedrock for a political philosophy which seeks to establish the
framework for a different and genuinely African path of development.
Tel: +226 315 779, Fax: +226 317 205.
Mycle Schneider (France) and Jinzaburo Takagi (Japan).
- to develop and distribute juridical, economic, scientific, social and
other information in France on the different sources and forms of
energy, their causes and the consequences of their production and
consequences on the local, regional, national or international level;
- to develop the comprehension of energy issues, especially the impact
of renewable sources and the consequences of the civil and military uses
of nuclear energy on the health and the security of present and future
generations, on the economic and socio-political systems;
- to increase popular involvement in environmental and energy saving
issues.
31-33, rue de la Colonie, 75013 Paris, France.
Tel: +33 1 45 65 47 93, Fax: +33 1 45 80 48 58.
1-58-14-302 Higashi-Nakano-ku, Tokyo 164, Japan.
Tel: +81 3 5330 9520, Fax: +81 3 5330 9530.
Michael Succow (Germany)
Grimmer Str 88. D-17487 Greifswald, Germany.
Tel: +49 3834 864116, Fax: +49 3834 864114.
Cindy Duehring (USA)
PO Box 1089, Ninot, ND 5870-21089, USA
Tel/Fax: +1 701 837 0161
Right Livelihood Foundation
founder: Jakob von Uexkull
PO Box 15072, S-10465 Stockholm, Sweden
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