The Little Entrepreneur, Singapore

Sophie Awards:

Outstanding Ideas for Mother Earth Wanted
Award: US$100,000

Established in 1997 by the Norwegian author Jostein Gaarder and his wife Siri Dannevig, The Sophie Prize is an International Award dubbed the "Nobel Prize for the Environment" in Europe. It is awarded annually to "an individual or an organization that in a pioneering or a particularly creative way, has pointed to alternatives to the present development and/or put such alternatives into practice."

SOPHIE PRIZE WINNER FOR 2006
ROMINA Picolotti
Argentinean lawyer and HR activist
Ms Picolotti, born in Argentina, is a lawyer and specialises in international law. She has done groundbreaking work in linking problems of environmental destruction to the fight for basic human rights. Romina Picolotti has given poor and disempowered rights-based protection against exploitation and environmental destruction.

The jury awarded the Sophie Prize for 2006 to Romina Picolotti with the following reasoning; she has:

Fought for human rights, the environment, and democracy.

Illustrated how exploitation of nature may led to exploitation of human rights.

Worked persistently to give poor an opportunity to claim their rights.

Challenged multinational companies and financial institutions, including the World Bank, on the negative social and environmental effects of their operations.

Previous Winners:
2001 - ATTAC, FRANCE
Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions for the Aid of Citizen (France) www.attac.org a worldwide and pioneering movement that challenges the uncritical economic growth and the negative effects of neo-liberalism. They have in the course of two years managed to mobilise and engage people all over the world for solidarity and justice, in an era otherwise dominated by passivity and greed.

2000 - SHERI LIAO, CHINA
Environmental journalist and activist, Ms. Liao founded the NGO Global Village of Beijing (GVB) www.gvbchina.org in March 1996, initiating a series of environmental projects carried out in the media and through public lectures, media events, workshops and other outreach activities. She has managed to mobilise millions of Chinese people and inspired them for the environment.

1999 - HERMAN DALY, USA & THOMAS KOCHERRY, INDIA
Herman Daly set Five Policy Recommendations for a Sustainable Economy.
Thomas Kocherry has shown that present economic policies impoverish people and the environment. Each in their own right has made constructive contributions to altering the course of this development.

1998 - ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS ACTION (ERA), NIGERIA
ERA, affiliated with Friends of the Earth International, Nigeria, has played a major role in surveying damage inflicted on the environment by oil companies operating in the Niger delta. ERA has demonstrated how human rights, the protection of the environment and democracy go hand in hand. They have fought to make the international companies and the government act in stopping the violation of human rights and of the environment.