Who is Jalila Haider? Pakistani Hazara lawyer wins 2026 Right Livelihood ‘alternative Nobel’

Pakistani human rights lawyer Jalila Haider has been awarded the 2026 Right Livelihood Award, also known as the "alternative Nobel". The Sweden-based Right Livelihood Foundation honored Haider, the first female lawyer from Pakistan's Hazara community, for her efforts in challenging ethnic and patriarchal persecution. Haider has spent over a decade defending the country's most vulnerable communities despite facing death threats.

The foundation praised her for building her work on the conviction that "no human being is illegal" and for providing legal representation to minorities and refugees in Balochistan. Her law firm has handled over 7,000 cases, many deemed too risky or unprofitable by others. Haider has also helped more than 600 human rights defenders and political activists regain freedom of movement after being placed on no-fly lists.

A founding member of the Women's Democratic Front, Haider helped pioneer Balochistan's first Women's March and led a seven-day hunger strike in 2018 to demand an end to targeted killings of Hazaras, which resulted in direct talks between the army chief and Hazara women. Her activism has led to her facing detention, cyber-harassment, and death threats, and being placed on Pakistan's Exit Control List twice. Haider's guiding principle is "No human being is illegal."