We celebrate that the coalition we participate in jointly with over 1,300 organisations in over 75 countries won a prestigious Human Rights prize. 

The United Nations recognised the Global Coalition of Civil Society, Indigenous Peoples, Social Movements, and Local Communities for the Universal Recognition of the Human Right to a Clean, Healthy, and Sustainable Environment for its critical role in advocating for the universal recognition of the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment after the historic adoption in 2022 of the UN General Assembly resolution that enshrines the international recognition of this right. This is a critical legal tool to challenge the fossil-fuel and extractive paradigm driving the climate emergency and putting at risk the full range of rights internationally recognised and the conditions sustaining life on the planet.

The UN Human Rights Prize is awarded every five years to several recipients and this is the first time it has been given to a global coalition since it was established in 1966. The prize will be presented on 10 December, which also marks the 75^th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, making this important recognition a paradigmatic moment in human rights history.

The coalition was nominated by UN agencies and selected from among several candidates by a committee as one of the four 2023 recipients. Previous award winners include Malala Yousafzai (Pakistan), Sister Dorothy Stang (Brazil), Sergio Vieira de Mello (Brazil), Reverend Dr Martin Luther King (USA), and Nelson Mandela (South Africa).

You may read the reactions of members of the coalition here and those of a few members here.