Singapore's Tommy Koh wins 2026 Ramon Magsaysay Award
The veteran diplomat is honoured for six decades of work in international law, including leading the negotiations that produced the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Professor Tommy Koh has been named a winner of the 2026 Ramon Magsaysay Award, often described as Asia's Nobel Prize, for six decades of work as a diplomat, negotiator and international law scholar.
Koh served as president of the Third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea and played a central role in bringing the negotiations on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to a successful conclusion in 1982, a treaty that today governs how countries share the world's oceans.
Fourth Singaporean to win
He joins Bangladeshi humanitarian Runa Khan and Myanmar activist Bo Kyi as this year's laureates. Koh is the fourth Singaporean to receive the award, following Lim Kim San (1965), Goh Keng Swee (1972) and Willing Hearts founder Tony Tay (2017).
The laureates will be recognised at Manila's Metropolitan Theatre on 15 November, each receiving a medallion, an inscribed certificate and a cash prize.
Sources: NUS News, Manila Times
