Who is Jalila Haider? Pakistani Hazara lawyer wins 2026 Right Livelihood ‘alternative Nobel’
First female lawyer from Hazara community honoured for defending minorities
Dubai: Pakistani human rights lawyer Jalila Haider, who has spent more than a decade defending some of the country’s most vulnerable communities despite death threats has won the 2026 Right Livelihood Award, widely known as the “alternative Nobel”.
The Sweden-based Right Livelihood Foundation honoured Haider, the first female lawyer from Pakistan’s Hazara community, for challenging ethnic and patriarchal persecution.
The foundation said Haider had built her work around the conviction that “no human being is illegal”, providing legal representation to minorities and refugees in Balochistan.
Her law firm has handled more than 7,000 cases, many considered too risky or unprofitable by others, according to Right Livelihood. It has also helped more than 600 human rights defenders and political activists.
Who is Jalila Haider?
Born: December 10, 1984, Quetta, Pakistan
Profession: Human rights lawyer and activist
Education: LLB, University Law College, Quetta, 2010
Historic first: First female lawyer from Pakistan’s Hazara community
Legal work: Her law firm has handled more than 7,000 cases involving minorities, refugees, transgender people, political activists and human rights defenders.
600 activists: Her legal work helped more than 600 political activists and human rights defenders regain freedom of movement after being placed on no-fly lists.
Women’s rights: A founding member of the Women’s Democratic Front, she helped pioneer Balochistan’s first Women’s March.
Helping widows: Her organisation, We the Humans, has helped more than 400 widows of terrorism victims become financially independent.
Survived bomb attack: In 2016, Haider survived a bombing while mourning a fellow lawyer who had been shot dead earlier that day.
2018 hunger strike: Led a seven-day protest against targeted killings of Hazaras, eventually leading to direct talks between the army chief and Hazara women.
Personal risks: Has faced detention, cyber-harassment and death threats, and has twice been placed on Pakistan’s Exit Control List.
Her guiding principle: “No human being is illegal.”
Haider, 41, rose to national prominence in 2018 when she led a seven-day hunger strike demanding an end to targeted killings of members of the Hazara community, a Shiite minority that has suffered years of sectarian violence.
The protest resulted in direct negotiations between Pakistan’s then army chief and Hazara women, which the foundation said contributed to a sustained decline in attacks on the community.
Haider has also taken her activism beyond the courtroom.
A founding member of the Women’s Democratic Front, she helped organise Balochistan’s first Women’s March, while her organisation, We the Humans, has helped more than 400 widows of terrorism victims achieve financial independence.
Her activism has come at considerable personal risk.
Haider has faced repeated detention, cyber-harassment and death threats, and her name has twice been placed on Pakistan’s Exit Control List.
In 2016, she survived a bomb blast while mourning a fellow lawyer who had been shot dead hours earlier while travelling to court.
“Human rights are universal rights for everyone: Child, woman, man, girl, or transgender, regardless of ethnicity,” Haider said.
She said those rights should extend even to communities whose members may have been involved in persecuting her own.
Right Livelihood Executive Director Ole von Uexkull said Haider had risked her life for more than a decade defending vulnerable communities while combining legal action and street activism to achieve change.
The Right Livelihood Award was established in 1980 after Swedish-German philanthropist Jakob von Uexkull proposed new Nobel prizes focusing on environmental protection and international development. After the Nobel Foundation rejected the proposal, he sold part of his stamp collection to establish an independent award.
Three other laureates were named for 2026: US artificial intelligence researcher Timnit Gebru, the Rural Women’s Assembly — representing more than 178,000 small-scale farmers across 11 Southern African countries — and the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association.
The four laureates will be honoured at an award ceremony in Stockholm on December 1.
Since its creation, Right Livelihood has recognised 207 laureates from 82 countries.
