Four honoured with Right Livelihood Award

The Right Livelihood Award, also known as the Alternative Nobel prize, is awarded in Stockholm today. The laureates this year bring a wide range of issues into focus: solar energy, land-grabbing by foreign investors, human rights in Africa and birth choises for women in the US.

As always - in its 31 year history - the award is shared by 4 individuals and organisations who have made significant contributions in areas such as human rights, the environment and social justice. Or in the wording of the Right livelihood itself, they have been "offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today".

This year, the winners are

- the entrepreneur Huang Ming from China for his development of cutting edge technologies for harnessing solar energy

- the lawyer Jacqueline Moudeina for her "tireless efforts" to win justice for victims of the former dictatorship in her native Chad and to increase awareness of human rights in Africa

- the midwife Ina May Gaskin for her whole life's work teaching and advocating safe, natural women-centered child birth methods that best promote the physical and mental health of the mother and child

- and the small-farming organisation Grain for their work worldwide to protect the livelihoods and rights of farming communities against the bulk purchasing of farmland in developing countries by foreign financial interests