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Die "Alternativen Nobelpreise" 2009: Weckrufe, unsere gemeinsame Zukunft zu sichern / 2009 Right Livelihood Awards: Wake-up calls to secure our common future

Einer der vier Ausgezeichneten: ALYN WARE (Neuseeland) für seinen Einsatz zur Schaffung einer atomwaffenfreien Welt / Alyn Ware (New Zealand) for his initiatives to rid the world of nuclear weapons

Dieses Jahr zum 30. Mal vergeben, gehen die Right Livelihood Awards 2009 an folgende vier Preisträger:

Der Ehrenpreis geht an DAVID SUZUKI (Kanada). Die Jury würdigt "seinen langjährigen Einsatz für die soziale Verantwortung der Wissenschaft, sowie zur Aufklärung über die Gefahren des Klimawandels und die zu seiner Begrenzung erforderlichen Massnahmen."

Drei Preisträger erhalten je einen Geldpreis in Höhe von 50 000 Euro:

RENÉ NGONGO (Demokratische Republik Kongo) erhält den Preis "für seinen Mut, sich jenen Kräften entgegenzustellen, die die Regenwälder des Kongo zerstören, und für seine Bemühungen, politische Unterstützung für deren Bewahrung und nachhaltige Nutzung zu schaffen."

ALYN WARE (Neuseeland) wird ausgezeichnet "für seinen Einsatz und seine internationalen Initiativen über zwei Jahrzente zur Stärkung der Friedenserziehung und zur Schaffung einer atomwaffenfreien Welt."

CATHERINE HAMLIN (Äthiopien) erhält den Preis, "weil sie sich seit fünfzig Jahren der Behandlung von Patientinnen mit Geburtsfisteln widmet und dabei die Gesundheit, Hoffung und Würde von Tausenden ärmster afrikanischer Frauen wiederhergestellt hat."

Die internationale Jury des Right Livelihood Award begründet die Auswahl der Preisträger wie folgt:

"Trotz der wissenschaftlichen Warnungen über die drohende Gefahr und zerstörerischen Auswirkungen des Klimawandels, und obwohl Lösungen längst bekannt sind, sind die Antworten auf diese globale Krise quälend langsam und unzureichend. Die weltweite atomare Bedrohung nimmt wieder zu. Und dass so viele arme Menschen an behandelbaren Krankheiten leiden, ist eine Schande für die Menschheit. Die Preisträger dieses Jahres zeigen konkret, was getan werden kann und muss, um den Klimawandel zu begrenzen, die Welt von Atomwaffen zu befreien und um lebenswichtige medizinische Behandlung auch für die Armen und Benachteiligten bereitzustellen."

Hintergrund

Die oft als "Alternative Nobelpreise" bezeichneten Right Livelihood Awards wurden 1980 gegründet, um "jene zu ehren und zu unterstützen, die praktische und beispielhafte Antworten zu den dringendsten Herausforderungen unserer Zeit finden und erfolgreich umsetzen".

Gründer ist Jakob von Uexküll, der damals seine wertvolle Briefmarkensammlung verkaufte, um den Grundstock für den Preis zu legen. Seitdem wird der Preis von privaten Spendern finanziert. Die Preisverleihung findet im Schwedischen Reichstag mit Unterstützung von Parlamentariern aus allen politischen Parteien statt.

82 Kandidaten aus 46 Ländern waren dieses Jahr für den Preis vorgeschlagen, davon kamen 36 aus Industrie- und 46 aus Entwicklungsländern.

2009 Right Livelihood Awards: Wake-up calls to secure our common future

The Right Livelihood Award Jury gave the following motivation for its choice of laureates:

"Despite the scientific warnings about the imminent threat and disastrous impacts of climate change and despite our knowledge about solutions, the global response to this crisis is still painfully slow and largely inadequate. At the same time, the threat from nuclear weapons has by no means diminished, and the treatable diseases of poverty shame our common humanity."

"The 2009 Right Livelihood Award Recipients demonstrate concretely what has to be done in order to tackle climate change, rid the world of nuclear weapons, and provide crucial medical treatment to the poor and marginalised."


The 2009 Right Livelihood Awards go to four recipients:
  • David Suzuki (Honorary Award, Canada) "for his lifetime advocacy of the socially responsible use of science, and for his massive contribution to raising awareness about the perils of climate change and building public support for policies to address it".
Three recipients receive cash awards of EUR 50,000 each:
  • René Ngongo (Democratic Republic of Congo) is honoured "for his courage in confronting the forces that are destroying the Congo's rainforests and building political support for their conservation and sustainable use".
  • Alyn Ware (New Zealand) is recognised "for his effective and creative advocacy and initiatives over two decades to further peace education and to rid the world of nuclear weapons".
  • Catherine Hamlin (Ethiopia) is awarded "for her fifty years dedicated to treating obstetric fistula patients, thereby restoring the health, hope and dignity of thousands of Africa's poorest women".

Alyn Ware (New Zealand - Aotearoa)

"...for his effective and creative advocacy and initiatives over two decades to further peace education and to rid the world of nuclear weapons."

Alyn Ware is one of the world's most effective peace workers, who has led key initiatives for peace education and nuclear abolition in New Zealand and internationally over the past 25 years. He helped draft the Peace Studies Guidelines that became part of the New Zealand school curriculum, initiated successful programmes in schools and thousands of classrooms throughout the country, and has served as an adviser to the NZ government and the UN on disarmament education. He was active in the campaign that prohibited nuclear weapons in New Zealand, before serving as the World Court Project UN Coordinator which achieved a historic ruling from the World Court on the illegality of nuclear weapons. Alyn Ware has led the efforts to implement the World Court's decision, including drafting resolutions adopted by the UN, bringing together a group of experts to prepare a draft treaty on nuclear abolition which is now being promoted by the UN Secretary General, and engaging parliamentarians around the world through Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament.

From kindergarten teacher to the United Nations

Alyn Ware was born in New Zealand in March 1962. He acquired a Bachelor of Education and a Diploma of Kindergarten Teaching from Waikato University in 1983. After a year of kindergarten teaching, Alyn established the Mobile Peace Van Society and for five years taught and co-ordinated all aspects of its peace education programme in pre-schools, primary schools and secondary schools. This included teaching in hundreds of classrooms; training teachers; co-founding the Cool Schools Peer Mediation Programme, initiating War Toy Amnesty events, launching Our Planet in Every Classroom; distributing teaching resources to every school through the School Journal; and working with the Department of Education to develop the Peace Studies Guidelines.

During that time Alyn was also active in the campaign to make New Zealand nuclear-weapon free. This included chairing the Hamilton nuclear-weapon-free zone committee, co-founding Peace Movement Aotearoa and leading the 1987 Peace Walk for a Nuclear Free New Zealand. In 1998 he travelled to the USA and USSR to share New Zealand's successful anti-nuclear campaigns with nuclear disarmament initiatives and organisations in those countries.

In 1990 he established the Gulf Peace Team office in New York and lobbied the UN Security Council on peaceful solutions to the Gulf Crisis. In 1991 he worked for the World Federalist Movement monitoring developments at the UN on the proposed International Criminal Court in preparation for the launch of the Coalition for an International Criminal Court (CICC) - which was successful in establishing the ICC. Alyn led the CICC Working Group on Weapons Systems during the ICC negotiations.

From 1992-99 he was the Executive Director of the Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy (LCNP), in which capacity he was also the World Court Project UN Co-ordinator. Under his leadership, the project was successful in getting the General Assembly to adopt a resolution requesting an opinion from the International Court of Justice on the legality of nuclear weapons. He also assisted a number of countries in their cases to the International Court of Justice in order to ensure a successful outcome. In its opinion, the Court declared the threat or use of nuclear weapons to be generally illegal and laid down a general obligation of states to achieve complete nuclear disarmament under international control.

Current positions and peace initiatives

In 1999, after helping establish a human rights presence in East Timor and Indonesia under Peace Brigades International, Alyn returned to New Zealand to take advantage of the peace and disarmament opportunities arising with the new Labour government under Prime Minister Helen Clark. Although based in New Zealand, this work required extensive travel, particularly to North America, Europe and Asia. This included ongoing work at the United Nations including the drafting and presentation to the UN Security Council of a Judges and Lawyers' Appeal on the Illegality of the Preventive use of Force - one of the initiatives which helped ensure that the UN Security Council did not authorise the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Alyn currently holds the positions of:
  • Director of the Wellington office of the Peace Foundation, a peace education activity in New Zealand schools and communities;
  • Vice-President of the International Peace Bureau, in which he is most active on their Disarmament for Development Program;
  • Consultant to the Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy and the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA) for which he is responsible for the programmes promoting Nuclear Weapon Free Zones and a Nuclear Weapons Convention;
  • New Zealand Coordinator of the World March for Peace and Nonviolence which started in New Zealand on 2 October 2009 and is travelling around the world promoting nuclear abolition, an end to war and the prevention of violence at all levels of society;
  • Co-Founder and International Coordinator of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (PNND), which engages legislators from across the political spectrum in nuclear disarmament issues and initiatives; and
  • Board member or advisor of a number of other international organisations including Abolition 2000, Middle Powers Initiative, Peace Boat, Mayors for Peace and the Global Campaign for Peace Education.
Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament

In 2002, Alyn established Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (PNND), a project of the Global Security Institute and the Middle Powers Initiative. PNND educates and engages parliamentarians in initiatives at the national, regional and international levels.

At the national level, Alyn helps legislators to draft parliamentary resolutions, engage in parliamentary debates, provide input into national policy decisions, adopt legislation, and participate in civil society actions and initiatives relating to nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament.

At the regional level, Alyn ensures that PNND is active in the development of nuclear-weapon-free zones, and in reducing the role of nuclear weapons in alliances such as NATO, ANZUS (Australia and the US) and the Japan-US and South Korea-US alliances.

At the international level, Alyn leads PNND activities to engage parliamentarians in key bodies such as the UN General Assembly, Conference on Disarmament, UN Security Council and NPT Review Conferences. PNND also assists parliamentarians to be active on specific issues and initiatives including nuclear testing, fissile materials, prevention of an arms race in outer space, and achievement of a nuclear weapons convention.

Advancing a Nuclear Weapons Convention

In 1995 Alyn co-founded Abolition 2000, an international network now numbering over 2000 endorsing organisations that calls for negotiations to achieve a Nuclear Weapons Convention - a treaty to prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons under effective international control. Following the 1996 International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, Alyn drafted a UN resolution on implementation of the ICJ opinion through negotiations for a Nuclear Weapons Convention. Since then, this resolution has attracted every year the votes of some 125 countries in the UN General Assembly - including from the New Agenda Countries (Brazil, Egypt, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa and Sweden), the Non-Aligned Movement, and some of the nuclear-weapons possessing countries - China, India, Pakistan and North Korea.

Alyn then brought together a group of experts to draft a Model Nuclear Weapons Convention - a 70-page document outlining the legal, technical and political measures required to achieve and sustain a nuclear-weapons-free world. This Model Nuclear Weapon Convention has been circulated and promoted by the UN Secretary-General.

Ware is also one of two principal authors of the book Securing our Survival: the Case for a Nuclear Weapons Convention, published by IPPNW and distributed to diplomats, academics, scientists, parliamentarians, mayors, non-governmental organisations and media around the world.

The links between peace education in schools and international peace

Alyn Ware believes that his peace education work in schools and his international peace and disarmament work are intricately linked. He says:

Quotation
"The principles of peace are the same whether it be in school, at home, in the community or internationally. These are primarily about how to solve our conflicts in win/win ways, i.e. in ways that meet all peoples' needs. My kindergarten teaching was thus good training for my international peace and disarmament work. And when I am back in the classroom, I can help students see that the ideas and approaches they are using to solve their conflicts are similar to the ideas and approaches we use at the United Nations to solve international conflicts."
(Alyn Ware)


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