AAU launches Declaration of Rights of Mother Earth

* Kicks off Right Livelihood College Trust Fund

Thursday, 21 April 2011, Addis Ababa - During the occasion of the Second Right Livelihood Lecture held today at Mokonnen Hall of Addis Ababa University, Professor Anwar Fazal launched the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth as part of an International Mother Earth Day celebration.

The lecture, organized by the Office of Vice President for External Relations, Strategic Planning and Partnership (OVPERSPP) saw an audience that included three Ethiopian winners of the Right Livelihood Award popularly known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize”, the President of the University and some 100 staff, students and diplomats.

Professor Anwar Fazal, the Director of the Right Livelihood College (RLC) and a recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, gave a presentation titled: “Doing Peace: The Right Livelihood Way.” The RLC is a global initiative of the Right Livelihood Award Foundation, inaugurated in January 2009 at its global secretariat in Penang at the University of Sains, Malaysia.

He is one of the earliest and outstanding laureates of the “Alternative Nobel Prize”, which he received in 1982 for his remarkable contribution and protecting the public interest globally.

During the first Right Livelihood Lecture Series held three months ago, Dr. Catherine Hamlin spoke of her work experience that restored the health, hope and dignity of thousands of Ethiopia’s poorest women. She received in 2009 the Right Livelihood Award for her fifty years of dedication to treating obstetric fistula patients.

In a related news, it was announced that the AAU Right Livelihood College Trust Fund has been set up to support the work of the RLC campus in AAU which will allow AAU to receive donations in the future.

“A sum of US$10,000 (Ten Thousand) is pledged as seed money from a donor for the Fund, and AAU will consider giving a matching grant,” Dr Hirut Woldemariam, VPERSPP told AAU’s Communications Office.

It was to be recalled that AAU became the first African Campus in the Right Livelihood Award Foundation (RLC) network, which accesses the laureates of the Foundation. It signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Foundation in June last year.

Established in 1980, the Right Livelihood Award is widely recognized as the world's premier award for personal courage and social transformation. It honors and supports people who offer workable solutions to the most urgent challenges of our time. Since 1980, 137 outstanding people and organizations from 58 countries around the world have been awarded for their engaged and successful work. Dr. Catherine Hamlin, who was recently awarded an honorary degree by Addis Ababa University, is amongst the five laureates drawn from Ethiopia.

For more information, please contact

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Addis Ababa University

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Please visit the website of Right Livelihood Award Foundation.