Content provided by UC Santa Cruz and the Right Livelihood Center

Santa Cruz, CA– The Right Livelihood Center at the University of California Santa Cruz is pleased to announce the upcoming five-day Right Livelihood International Conference from April 23-27, 2024. This conference will host Right Livelihood Laureates, students, and activists from across the world to participate in a series of events to exchange knowledge and strategize solutions. Through events such as a teach-in, student dialogues, mixers, and public talks, we plan to solicit diverse perspectives to inspire innovation through collaboration. 

The Right Livelihood International Conference will feature three Laureates of the Right Livelihood Award, recognized for their perseverance and bravery in bringing about global: Juan Pablo Orrego, Phyllis Omido, and Mother Nature Cambodia. Juan Pablo Orrego is a musician turned activist, awarded for his plight to protect one of Chile’s most ecologically significant rivers, the Biobío River, and the indigenous Pehuenche people. Phyllis Omido is an environmentalist and human rights advocate from Kenya, protecting the rights of marginalized communities from lead poisoning. Ly Chandaravuth is a youth leader of Mother Nature Cambodia, an environmental rights movement working at the forefront of environmental preservation, human rights, and democracy. Our Laureates will be featured in a talk at UCSC’s Silicon Valley Campus on April 24th, a talk at UCSC’s Main Campus on April 25th, and an all-day teach-in on April 25th. All three of these events are open to the public and free of charge. 

Another key feature of our conference is cross-continental student engagement as we know we are strongest when working together. As UCSC is just one of thirteen universities affiliated with the Right Livelihood Foundation, we will have international student delegates coming from Kyrgyzstan, Thailand, Argentina, India, Kenya, Belgium, Nigeria, Chile, and Sweden. Our international delegates, alongside UCSC students, will partake in a series of student dialogues to learn about prevalent issues from each other's communities. The result of these dialogues will be a roadmap to outline the goals, mission, and maintenance of launching an international student activist network.

The Right Livelihood International Conference is being put on by the Right Livelihood Center at UCSC to celebrate our 10th Anniversary and inauguration as Global Secretariat of the entire Right Livelihood College network. We are honored to take on this role to boost students into global leaders. 

We wish to thank our many supporting organizations, including the Institute for Social Transformation, Division of Social Sciences, UCSC Foundation, Kamieniecki Lecture Fund Endowment, Merrill, Porter and Stevenson Colleges, Global Campus of Human Rights, Student Fee Advisory Committee, Dolores Huerta Research Center for the Americas, The Humanities Institute, Politics Democratic Discourse and Engagement Initiative, Legal Studies Department, Silicon Valley Leadership Group, Division of Student Affairs and Success, and The Jack and Peggy Baskin Endowed Chair in Feminist Studies.