Mozambican activist Anabela Lemos, who has been given this year’s Right Livelihood Award in Stockholm, denounced what she called the “repressive violence of the state” in her own country, lamenting the many deaths and injuries that have resulted and the idea that “impunity” prevails in the face of demands for change.
“We’re in a climate crisis – so-called development has led us to this – we need to change and change is possible,” said Lemos, who works for the organisation Justiça Ambiental! and who was given the award “for strengthening communities to assert their right to say no to exploitative megaprojects.”
Recalling that Mozambique “is going through an unprecedented post-election crisis” the activist denounced the “repressive violence of the state” – highlighting the fact that there have been many dead and wounded and that “impunity” prevails in the face of demands for change.
JA! has spoken out against various projects, such as French multinational TotalEnergies’s natural gas extraction project in Cabo Delgado, and has created alliances with civil society in a score of countries to delay their implementation.
The gala award ceremony for the so-called ‘alternative Nobel Prize’ of the Swedish foundation Right Livelihood Award, held at the Circus Theatre in Stockholm, sent out a message in favour of Palestine and the rights of the environment and indigenous peoples.
The situation in Palestine, especially Gaza, was highlighted by the group Youth Against Settlements (YAS), but also in the words of other laureates, such as Anabela Lemos and the UK research group Forensic Architecture.
The Right Livelihood Award, as the prize for social work is called, has so far recognised almost 200 individuals and organisations since it was established in 1980 by the Swedish-German writer and member of the European Parliament Jakob von Uexküll.
Lemos was recognised for her opposition to exploration projects in Mozambique, namely the ‘Say No to Gas Campaign’ – which drew international attention to environmental and human rights struggles in the country, the foundation explained in a statement.
“JA! is known for its global defence, particularly, since 2007, against the ‘Mozambique LNG’ gas extraction project, worth 24 billion dollars [around €22 billion] in Cabo Delgado – in the north of the country – supported by TotalEnergies,” it recalled.
JA! has created alliances with civil society in more than 23 countries to challenge this project and, by providing critical evidence on the ground of the project’s damage to local communities, “the organisation has exposed human rights violations and corporate crimes, successfully delaying the progress of ‘Mozambique LNG’,” it continued.
According to the foundation, “given Mozambique’s politically oppressive environment, JA! is one of the few organisations in the country that dares to challenge such damaging projects.”
For more than 20 years, Lemos and JA! have worked “courageously alongside affected communities” to fight government and company-led projects “that cause displacement, damage livelihoods and intensify climate change,” it concluded.
Lemos and JA! are the foundation’s first award winners from Mozambique.
Among others cited by the Right Livelihood Foundation this year were Joan Carling, from the Philippines, “for raising indigenous voices in the face of global ecological collapse and for her leadership in the defence of peoples, lands and culture”; Issa Amro, from Palestine, through the Youth Against Settlements (YAS) project, “for its unwavering non-violent resistance to Israel’s illegal occupation, promoting Palestinian civic action through peaceful means”, and the UK organisation Forensic Architecture, founded and directed by Eyal Weizman, “for pioneering digital forensic methods to ensure justice and accountability [in cases of] victims and survivors of human and environmental rights violations.”
Lusa
