Chamorro human rights lawyer and writer from Guam accepts ‘Alternative Nobel Prize’ for his legal role in landmark International Court of Justice advisory opinion (ICJ AO)

Chamorro human rights lawyer and writer from Guam accepts ‘Alternative Nobel Prize’ for his legal role in landmark International Court of Justice advisory opinion (ICJ AO)

INTRO:
Indigenous Chamorro human rights lawyer and writer Julian Aguon, who helped spearhead the successful push for a landmark International Court of Justice advisory opinion on climate change, will be accepting the 2025 Right Livelihood Award in Stockholm on December 2, 2025.

Aguon founded Blue Ocean Law in Guam in 2014, creating the Pacific’s only international human rights law firm led by Indigenous peoples. For more than five years, he and his team provided legal counsel to Vanuatu and a coalition of climate-vulnerable states, drafting the arguments that convinced the ICJ to affirm states’ binding obligations to protect people and ecosystems from climate harm.

Beyond the World Court, Aguon has defended Chamorro self-determination in Guam, fought against U.S. militarisation and deep-sea mining, and inspired new generations through his acclaimed book No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies. His work has made him a leading voice for climate accountability and decolonisation across Oceania and the world.

The 2025 Right Livelihood Award, also known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize,” is being given to four Laureates: Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change and Julian Aguon (Pacific Islands and Guam), Justice For Myanmar (Myanmar), Audrey Tang (Taiwan), and Emergency Response Rooms (Sudan).

Since 1980, the Right Livelihood Award has recognised 203 Laureates from 81 countries, celebrating their courage to solve global problems.