THE RIGHT LIVELIHOOD AWARD – also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize – recognized the work of some outstanding campaigners, activists and academics in 1998.

For nearly 20 years the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) group has effectively campaigned for the rights of mothers to choose to breastfeed their babies, in the full knowledge of the health benefits of breastmilk and free from the commercial pressure and misinformation with which companies promote breastmilk substitutes.

American academic Samuel Epstein has for many years wedded scholarship with humanity in his tireless efforts to stress the responsibility of environmental pollution for much avoidable cancer and in campaigning for its phasing out. Epstein and the Cancer Prevention Coalition which he founded put pressure on both governments and corporations to take responsibility for product safety and environmental protection.

In Chile Juan Pablo Orrego and his organization, the Grupo de Acción por el Biobío struggled to prevent the ecological destruction of the country’s Biobío River valley, threatened by a string of massive dams. The group took the debate about the fundamental issues of sustainable development to the heart of Chilean society and in so doing successfully challenged the hydroelectric monopoly and the dam builders. The group was instrumental in obtaining reform of government policy.

War and ‘ethnic cleansing’ in the Balkans have appalled the world in recent years. The task of building peace, justice and ethnic harmony in these war-torn societies was nowhere undertaken with more skill, vision and commitment than by Katarina Kruhonja and Vesna Terselic and by the peace movements they inspired in Croatia. The Croatian Anti-War Campaign (ARK), largely founded by Vesna Terselic in 1991, is the peace movement with the strongest and most active role in emerging civil society in Croatia. It brings together a large number of organizations concerned with peace work and social reconstruction. One of these is the Centre for Peace, Non-Violence and Human Rights founded by physician Katarina Kruhonja.

For further information about the winners and their organizations contact:
The Right Livelihood Award Foundation,
PO Box 15072, S-10465 Stockholm, Sweden.
Tel (+8) 7020338.
E-mail: info@rightlivelihood.se

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