Women and women-led groups win Right Livelihood Award for fighting autocracy, discrimination and AI harms
The Right Livelihood Award honored a Pakistani lawyer, an Ethiopian-born AI researcher, a Georgian legal group and a Southern African women’s farmers’ network for confronting authoritarianism, gender oppression and AI-related risks.
The Stockholm-based Right Livelihood Award presented its annual prize to four women-led entities for challenging authoritarian rule, gender-based violence and the unchecked influence of artificial intelligence. Pakistani human-rights lawyer Jalila Haider was recognised for breaking barriers as the first female Hazara attorney and for securing justice for ethnic, gender and religious minorities. Ethiopian-born AI researcher Timnit Gebru earned the award for exposing the harms of AI systems and confronting the dominance of a few tech giants.
The Georgian Young Lawyers' Association was praised for defending democratic institutions and achieving legal reforms such as disability protections and free education. Finally, the Rural Women's Assembly, representing over 178,000 women farmers in eleven Southern African nations, was honored for defending land, seed diversity and bodily autonomy against corporate and patriarchal dispossession. The winners were chosen from 200 nominations submitted by 72 countries, reflecting a shared commitment to re-centering people in societal structures.
Why it matters
The awards spotlight global efforts by women to counter oppression, protect rights and curb AI misuse, inspiring broader advocacy.
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