Magsaysay Awards go to Tommy Koh, Runa Khan and Bo Kyi

The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation named three laureates for 2026 on 31 August: Tommy Koh of Singapore, Runa Khan of Bangladesh and Bo Kyi of Myanmar. The foundation, which calls the prize Asia's highest honour, will present the 68th awards in Manila on 15 November. Koh, 88, was away from the announcement because it fell on his last day as a diplomat at Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, foundation president Susan Afan said.

Koh was cited for six decades in diplomacy, international law, education and public service, and for what the foundation called a steadfast faith in dialogue, the rule of law and international cooperation. He is best known for his role as president of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, which produced the 1982 convention that still governs most claims to the seabed and the 12-mile and 200-mile zones. About 150 countries sat in those talks. The treaty is now the text that China, the Philippines, Vietnam and others argue over in the South China Sea. Koh has also taught, written and pushed heritage and arts causes in Singapore.

Floating clinics and movable schools

Khan, 67, is the only woman on this year's list. She founded Friendship, a Bangladeshi organisation that began after she visited a char, one of the shifting river islands, in 1997. The group runs a three-tier health system from primary posts to specialist care and sends floating hospitals along the rivers. It later added what the foundation described as movable schools for climate migrants: classrooms that can be taken down in hours and rebuilt when erosion eats the bank. The citation ties health, schooling and climate displacement together rather than treating them as separate programmes.

The prison ledger

Bo Kyi, 61, spent seven years in prison after Myanmar's 1988 protests. He left for the Thai border to avoid another arrest and in 2000 co-founded the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. AAPP records arrests and deaths in custody, supports families and keeps names in public view. The foundation cited his pursuit of truth, accountability and justice. Myanmar's junta has filled the prisons again since the 2021 coup. AAPP's lists are one of the few running counts that journalists and governments still cite.

The three citations point in different directions: a treaty hall, a river clinic, a prison file. What they share is duration. Koh has been at the same problems since the 1970s. Khan has been on the chars since 1997. Bo Kyi has been counting prisoners since 2000. The award does not change UNCLOS, the Brahmaputra's erosion or the junta's arrest rate. It puts a medal and a cash prize on work that has already outlasted several political cycles.

Koh's absence from the announcement is a small fact with a clean edge. He spent the day finishing a government job rather than flying in for a press line. The November ceremony will be the public one.