Former minister of digital affairs Audrey Tang (唐鳳) yesterday received the Right Livelihood Award for using digital technology to empower citizens and advance democracy.
Tang won the prize “for advancing the social use of digital technology to empower citizens, renew democracy and heal divides,” the Stockholm-based Right Livelihood Foundation said.
Tang is a “civic hacker and technologist who rewires systems for the public good,” the foundation said.
Photo: Chen Cheng-liang, Taipei Times
In addition to Taiwan, which is the frequent target of threats and disinformation, the award was granted to activists from Sudan and Myanmar, where military and political violence has devastated communities, and from the Pacific Islands, where climate disaster threatens entire nations.
“As authoritarianism and division rise globally, the 2025 Right Livelihood Laureates are charting a different course: one rooted in collective action, resilience and democracy to create a livable future for all,” the foundation said about the winners.
It considered 159 nominees from 67 countries this year.
The youth-led organization Pacific Island Students Fighting Climate Change and Julian Aguon were awarded the prize “for carrying the call for climate justice to the world’s highest court, turning survival into a matter of rights and climate action into a legal responsibility,” the foundation said.
Justice for Myanmar was awarded “for their courage and their pioneering investigative methods in exposing and eroding the international support to Myanmar’s corrupt military,” Right Livelihood said, adding that the covert group of activists is working to expose the financial architecture and global corporate complicity sustaining the military government.
In Sudan, the Emergency Response Rooms network was awarded for “for building a resilient model of mutual aid amid war and state collapse that sustains millions of people with dignity,” the foundation said.
The Sudanese community-led network has become the backbone of the country’s humanitarian response amid war, displacement and state collapse, it said, adding that their help includes healthcare, food assistance and education, where many international aid organizations cannot reach.
Created in 1980, the annual Right Livelihood Award honors efforts that the prize founder, Swedish-German philanthropist Jakob von Uexkull, felt were being ignored by the Nobel Prizes.
“At a time when violence, polarization and climate disasters are tearing communities apart, the 2025 Right Livelihood Laureates remind us that joining hands in collective action is humanity’s most powerful response,” said Ole von Uexkull, the nephew of the prize founder and the organization’s executive director.
“Their courage and vision create a tapestry of hope and show that a more just and livable future is possible,” he added.
Previous winners include Ukrainian human rights defender Oleksandra Matviichuk, Congolese surgeon Denis Mukwege and Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. Matviichuk and Mukwege received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 and 2018 respectively.
The Right Livelihood Award comes just a week before the Nobel Prizes. This year’s laureates would be given their awards on Dec. 2 in Stockholm. The size of the prize amount was not announced.
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