STOCKHOLM: Pakistani human rights lawyer Jalila Haider, AI researcher Timnit Gebru and two women-led organizations have received the 2026 Right Livelihood Award, often described as the “Alternative Nobel Prize.”
The four laureates were announced Wednesday in Stockholm for their work addressing human rights, democracy, women’s rights and the social impact of artificial intelligence.
Haider was honored for breaking barriers as the first female lawyer from Pakistan’s Hazara community and for challenging ethnic, state and patriarchal persecution. The foundation said her work is guided by the conviction that “no human being is illegal.”
Haider has worked to protect vulnerable communities through legal advocacy, activism and community empowerment. The foundation said her work has helped people facing ethnic and gender-based discrimination, as well as refugees and human rights defenders.
Gebru, a U.S. artificial intelligence researcher, was recognized for challenging concentrated power in the AI industry and promoting technology centered on justice, lived experience and human agency.
She co-founded Black in AI in 2017 and later established the Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, known as DAIR. Her research has examined racial and gender bias in AI systems and the potential harms of large language models.
The jury also recognized Gebru’s work following her departure from Google, where she had served as co-lead of the company’s Ethical AI team. According to the foundation, she was asked to retract or remove her name from a research paper and was later fired after refusing to do so without certain guarantees.
The Rural Women’s Assembly, a grassroots movement representing more than 178,000 small-scale farmers across 11 Southern African countries, was also named a laureate.
The group was recognized for organizing rural women to defend land, seeds and bodily autonomy against what the foundation described as corporate and patriarchal dispossession.
The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association, founded in 1994 by volunteer lawyers, received the award for its work to safeguard democracy and civic participation in Georgia. The foundation described it as the country’s first Right Livelihood laureate.
The Right Livelihood Award was established in 1980 by Swedish-German philanthropist Jakob von Uexkull. The foundation said 200 nominees from 72 countries were considered for the 2026 award.
The four laureates will be formally honored at an award presentation in Stockholm on Dec. 1.
