The 1994 Right Livelihood Award will be shared by people from three parts of the world: Nigerian Ken Saro-Wiwa, Indian doctor H. Sudarshan and the Trinidadian organization SERVOL.
The Right Livelihood Awards, which are sometimes called the alternative Nobel Peace Prize, were introduced in 1980 "to honour and support those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today."
Among the winners, the case of Ken Saro-Wiwa may be the most urgent. Saro-Wiwa has been working to end the environmental degradation caused by oil extraction and to gain the right of the Ogoni people of southeast Nigeria to use and protect their resources.
Saro-Wiwa was abducted by soldiers in May 1994, and his life is believed to be in danger. Amnesty International, which has adopted him as a prisoner of conscience, says his detention "is solely because of his campaign against environmental damage and inadequate compensation by oil companies."
For information on Saro-Wiwa’s case, contact Amnesty International, 304 Pennsylvania Ave. SE, Washington, DC 20003. The address of the Right Livelihood Awards, is PO Box 15072, S-104 65 Stockholm, Sweden.
