Martti Ahtisaari receives 2007 Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize

The Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize was attributed to Martti Ahtisaari, President of Finland from 1994 to 2000, and founder of the non-governmental organization Crisis Management Initiative. Henry Kissinger, former U.S. Secretary of State and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, president of the international jury that awards the Prize, declared that the laureate had been chosen “for his lifetime contribution to world peace.”

In a personal message to Mr Ahtisaari, the Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, expressed great pleasure at this recognition and congratulating the laureate. Recalling the outstanding nature of Mr Ahtisaari’s career at the service of dialogue and world peace, Mr Matsuura stressed its closeness to UNESCO’s ideals.

Mr Ahtisaari carried out numerous peace missions for the United Nations, in particular in Namibia and the Balkans. In the framework of the Crisis Management Initiative, he organized in September 2007 during a week in Helsinki negotiations between Iraqi Moslem Sunnite and Shiite groups to help re-establish dialogue between the two communities.

With the Crisis Management Initiative, he also facilitated the peace process between Indonesia and the Aceh separatists. This process led to the signing of a peace treaty between the Indonesian Government and the Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (GAM, Free Aceh Movement) ending the conflict in the province.

In 2000, he supervised the disarmament process of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in Northern Ireland at the request of the British government.

The Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize was created in 1989 by UNESCO’s General Conference “to honour living individuals, and active public or private bodies or institutions that have made a significant contribution to promoting, seeking, safeguarding or maintaining peace, in conformity with the Charter of the United Nations and the Constitution of UNESCO.”

The international jury which awards the prize comprises distinguished personalities such as Mario Soares, former President of the Republic of Portugal and the Argentinean Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel.
Previous laureates of the Prize include Nelson Mandela and Frederik W. De Klerk; Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Pérès and Yasser Arafat; King Juan Carlos of Spain and former US President Jimmy Carter; and Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade.

• Author(s):Communiqué de presse N°2008- 32
• Source:UNESCOPRESSE
• 16-05-2008