Vanuatu Law Students and Julian Aguon Win Right Livelihood Award

The Sweden-based Right Livelihood Foundation honored Vanuatu’s lawyer Julian Aguon, Sudan’s Emergency Response Rooms, a Burmese anti-corruption group, and a Taiwanese digital democracy supporter for their contribution to social and environmental justice.

• The Sweden-based Right Livelihood Foundation honored Vanuatu’s law students and human rights lawyer Julian Aguon with the Right Livelihood Award for climate justice.
• This group, named Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change (PISFCC), raised the issue of climate protection in the International Court of Justice, which issued an advisory opinion in July.
• Established by 27 students at the University of the South Pacific, which is most vulnerable to the country’s climate impacts, PISFCC’s aim was to bring the world’s biggest problem before the world’s highest court.
• In addition, the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the Alternative Nobel, honored Sudan’s Emergency Response Rooms, a Burmese anti-corruption group, and a Taiwanese digital democracy supporter for their contribution to social and environmental justice.

Other winners

• Emergency Response Rooms were honored for their relief efforts during the civil war in Sudan.
• The award was also given to Justice for Myanmar (JFM), an underground group of Burmese activists profiting from Myanmar’s military junta.
• Another recipient was Audrey Tang, a Taiwanese programmer who was the country’s first Minister of Digital Affairs from August 2022 to May 2024.

Right Livelihood Award

• This award was established in 1980 by Swedish-German philanthropist Jakob von Uexkull to honor individuals and organizations working on practical solutions to global problems in areas such as environmental protection, human rights, and sustainable development.
• This award began due to Uexkull’s dissatisfaction with the Nobel Foundation’s rejection of the proposal to establish new awards for changemakers in social and environmental issues, particularly in the Global South.

Government school of a village in Pune won the World’s Best School Award 2025

• A district council (ZP) school in Jalindarnagar village of Pune district, Maharashtra, won the Community Choice Award in the World’s Best School 2025 category. The award was announced on 30 September 2025 by the UK-based global education platform T4 Education.
• From being on the verge of closure to now being chosen among the best schools in the world; this has been a big transformation for this government institution located in Khed taluka of Pune.
• Parents and residents credit this unprecedented change to various initiatives started by President Award-winning teacher Dattatraya Weir. This school is a government educational institution managed by two teachers.
• When Weir was transferred to this school in 2021, only three to four students were enrolled here due to parents’ growing demand for private schools. Today, this school provides education to 120 students from classes 1 to 8, supported by only two full-time teachers, and is an example of how community participation can redefine effective schooling with limited resources.