Award ceremony for the 2008 UNESCO Prize for Peace Education

• ©: UNESCO

On 18 September (Room I, 5 p.m.), UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura will present the award for the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education 2008 to the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (South Africa). The ceremony will be held within the framework of the celebrations of the International Day of Peace (21 September) and of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The chair of the Prize jury, Mohammed Arkoun, professor of the history of Islamic thought, will be present.

The prize-giving ceremony will be preceded by the projection of the documentary “Truth, Justice, Memory: South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Process”.

The Institute for Justice and Reconciliation is rewarded for its efforts in building "sustainable reconciliation through education and in addressing systemic injustice in Africa”.

The Institute was founded in 2000 to focus on fostering reconciliation in post-Apartheid South Africa and advocating peace within the context of thorough socio-political analysis. Since then, the Cape Town-based institute has helped other African countries, including Rwanda, Sudan and Burundi, engage in a similar process.

The Institute cooperates with governments, civil society and academics of countries in transition to improve justice, development and human security through policy research and analysis, and capacity building. Every year, it publishes the Transformation Audit which assesses social, economic and educational developments necessary for sustainable peace.

Funded by the Nippon Foundation in 1981, the $40,000 UNESCO Prize for Peace Education encourages efforts to raise public awareness of the need for peace. In 2006, it was awarded to Sri Lankan judge Christopher Gregory Weeramantry. Previous Winners include among others Father Emile Shoufani (Israel), the City Montessori School (India), the Jewish-Arab Center for Peace in Givat Haviva (Israel), Bishop Nelson Onono-Onweng (Uganda), the Association of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (Argentina), Prayudh Payutto (Thailand), Mother Theresa (India), Rigoberta Menchú Tum (Guatemala) and Paulo Freire (Brazil).

• Author(s):Media Advisory N°2008-54
• Source:UNESCOPRESS
• 09-09-2008