WCC News: Right Livelihood announces 2025 laureates, who confront violence and climate chaos

Right Livelihood has announced its 2025 laureates, who as a group confront violence and climate chaos with collective action.  The Right Livelihood Award 2025 laureates are recognized for confronting violence and climate chaos and supporting democracy to create a livable future for all. Photo: Right Livelihood 09 October 2025 Selected for their resilience and support for democracy to create a livable future for all, this year’s laureates all are the first from their respective countries to receive the Right Livelihood Award. The 2025 Right Livelihood Award, also known as the “alternative Nobel Prize,” goes to Pacific Islands students fighting climate change, and to Julian Aguon from Guam “for carrying the call for climate justice to the world’s highest court, turning survival into a matter of rights and climate action into a legal responsibility.” Many Pacific Islands students and churches have been working closely with the World Council of Churches in a special “Call for a Peace-Full Pacific,” which urges a move beyond militarised security toward holistic, relational peace in the Pacific.  The WCC has reaffirmed its support for a nuclear-free Pacific, standing in solidarity with affected communities in Ma‘ohi Nui, the Marshall Islands, and Kiribati, calling for independent assessments of nuclear test impacts, transparent data access, reparations, environmental remediation, and universal ratification of the Treaty of Rarotonga and of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The award also goes to "Justice For Myanmar" for “their courage and their pioneering investigative methods in exposing and eroding the international support to Myanmar’s corrupt military.” Audrey Tang from Taiwan also earned a Right Livelihood Award “for advancing the social use of digital technology to empower citizens, renew democracy, and heal divides.” Emergency response rooms from Sudan were awarded “for building a resilient model of mutual aid amid war and state collapse that sustains millions of people with dignity.” Ole von Uexkull, executive director of Right Livelihood, said: “At a time when violence, polarisation and climate disasters are tearing communities apart, the 2025 Right Livelihood Laureates remind us that joining hands in collective action is humanity’s most powerful response. Their courage and vision create a tapestry of hope and show that a more just and liveable future is possible.” Learn more about The 2025 Right Livelihood Awards See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 356 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa. Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches Chemin du Pommier 42 Kyoto Building Le Grand-Saconnex CH-1218 Switzerland