Jalila Haider, a Hazara lawyer and human rights activist from Pakistan, has won the 2026 Right Livelihood Award, often known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize.”
The Stockholm-based Right Livelihood Foundation announced the 2026 laureates today, Wednesday, September 30.
The foundation said Haider has supported some of Pakistan’s most vulnerable communities in the face of state repression, patriarchal norms and ethnic violence. In 2018, she led a seven-day hunger strike to protest the targeted killings of Hazaras.
According to the announcement, Haider’s action compelled the Pakistani army to negotiate directly with Hazara women, after which attacks on the community declined on a sustained basis.
The foundation said Haider has pursued justice for thousands of people targeted or ignored by those in power—particularly gender and religious minorities, and refugees—by combining legal work, street activism and community empowerment.
The announcement also said Haider’s law office has helped secure the release of more than 600 political activists and human rights defenders.
The Right Livelihood Foundation said this year’s awards have been given to women and women-led organizations challenging some of the world’s most entrenched power structures, including authoritarian rule, patriarchal violence and the unchecked development of artificial intelligence.
The awards are scheduled to be presented to the laureates in Stockholm, Sweden, on 1 September.
The prize is worth two million Swedish kronor and is awarded annually to activists and advocates from around the world working in areas including human rights, health, the environment, education and peace.
