Bishop Erwin Kräutler, president of the Indigenist Missionary Council (Cimi) receives Right Livelihood Award "for a lifetime of work for the human and environmental rights of indigenous peoples and for his tireless efforts to save the Amazon forest from destruction."

 

Bishop Erwin Kräutler will be one of four recipients of this year’s Right Livelihood Award, often referred to as the "Alternative Nobel Prize." The other laureates are Narendra Bahadur, Executive Director of SAPPROS, Dr. Ruchama Marton, Founder and President of Physicians for Human Rights–Israel and Nnimmo Bassey, president of Friends of the Earth International.

 

The Right Livelihood Awards will be presented tonight, 6 December at 6 pm in the Swedish Parliament. The award acceptance speeches will be made available that day at 6 pm at www.rightlivelihood.org/press_room.html

 

Said Bishop Erwin Kräutler, during today’s press conference: “I accept the Right Livelihood Award in the name of those who fight with me today – on behalf of the indigenous peoples, Amazonia and human rights. I accept it also in the name of the dozens of people who have given their lives, whose blood has been spilled and who were brutally assassinated because they opposed the systemized destruction of Amazonia. I am honoured with the award at a moment, when our struggle on behalf of the indigenous people are taking on new dimensions and greater importance in the face of the development projects that threaten Amazonia.”

 

Kräutler and Belo Monte

Bishop Kräutler has been an unwavering ally of indigenous peoples and social movements opposed to Brazil’s Belo Monte Dam on the Xingu River ever since the 1980ies.

 

Antônia Melo, coordinator of the Movimento Xingu Vivo para Sempre, will accompany Don Erwin at the ceremony where both will speak about the Lula government’s latest attempts to initiate the devastating dam project at any moment, in blatant violation of human rights and environmental legislation, and the movement’s actions to defend the Xingu river and its people.

 

Erwin Kräutler, the Bishop of Xingu and the President of the Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI) of the Catholic Church in Brazil, is one of Brazil’s most important defenders of and advocates for the rights of indigenous peoples. Kräutler, who is motivated by the liberation theology, is known for helping secure the inclusion of indigenous peoples’ rights into the Brazilian constitution. Since the 1980s, he has served an important role in the movement to stop the Belo Monte Dam, one of South America’s most destructive energy projects.

 

Ceremony available online

The 31st Right Livelihood Award Ceremony will take place in the Swedish Parliament on December 6 at 6pm CET. A live broadcast of the ceremony will be available on the Right Livelihood Awards website. Click here for more information, including the complete program of activities.

 

Further Information & Award Ceremony

Founded in 1980, the Right Livelihood Awards are presented for the 31th time this year. The total prize money is EUR 200,000 shared by all four Laureates. This year, there were 120 proposals from 51 countries, whereof 69 candidates from "developing" countries. There are now 141 Laureates from 59 countries.

 

Video (broadcast quality, free to use) supporting this press release is available at http://download.rightlivelihood.org/files/ (Videos feat. Erwin Kräutler, Physicians for Human Rights–Israel, and SAPPROS)