Alyn Ware – The Right Livelihood Award Laureate

The Right Livelihood Award, also known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize,” is an international award given annually to honor individuals, organizations, and movements that have made significant contributions to the promotion of social justice, sustainable development, and environmental protection. The Right Livelihood Award is however distinct from the Nobel Prizes, as it specifically focuses on areas not covered by the Nobel Prize.

In 1983, Alyn started to work as a kindergarten teacher, after completing the Bachelor of Education and receiving a Diploma of Kindergarten Teaching from Waikato University. After a year of teaching, Alyn decided to establish the Mobile Peace Van Society, which travelled from school to school in order to educate on peace and disarmament.

Alyn Ware has later assisted in drafting the Peace Studies Guidelines which became part of the school curriculum in New Zealand schools. He also served as an advisor to the New Zealand government and the United Nations on disarmament education. One of his biggest achievements is being involved in the request for an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the legality of nuclear weapons. In this case, the ICJ declared the threat or use of nuclear weapons to be illegal.

Currently, Alyn serves in many different positions, including as an International Representative for the Peace Foundation (a peace education activity in schools and communities), Co-Founder and International Coordinator of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (PNND), and Consultant to the Lawyers’ Committee on Nuclear Policy and the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Weapons (IALANA).

Please join us in Lund on 30 May for a lecture with key speaker Alyn Ware at 9am. More information to come!