|
|
Indian and Pakistani laureates receive jointly the UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize for the Promotion of Tolerance and Non-violence in 1998.
 |
The winners of the 1998 UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize for the Promotion of Tolerance and Non-violence. From right to left: Mr. Narayan Desai (India) with the jury member H. E. I. K. Gujral, Former Prime Minister of India; Ms. Shah Taj Qizilbash (Pakistan) representing the Joint Action Committee for People's Rights (JAC) with the jury member: H.E. Boutros Boutros Ghali, Former U.N. Secretary General; The jury was chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu (Nobel Laureat). |
The Director-General paid homage to the anti-nuclear activism in which Mr. Narayan Desai has been engaged for many decades, and to his tireless promotion of religious and ethnic understanding and tolerance. | | With the Shanti Sena (Peace Bridge) corps of volunteers dedicated to non-violence, this militant for tolerance has striven to spread Mahatma Gandhi's vision of Gram Swaraj, a decentralized political and economic system.
However, it was on the remarkable part played by the Indian laureate as an educator for peace that Federico Mayor dwelt: “Mr. Desai”, he said, “has contributed to the creation of peace centres and youth training camps and has written some 30 books, most of which are dedicated to education.”
The activist Narayan Desai, organizer of the Shanti Sena (Peace Bridge) corps of Indian volunteers dedicated to non-violence was jointly awarded with the JAC (Joint Action Committee for People’s Rights, an informal coalition of some thirty non-governmental organizations) the UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize for Tolerance and Non-Violence.
Presenting the award, the Director-General of UNESCO, Federico Mayor, paid tribute to the admirable courage and constancy of both the Indian and Pakistani organizations for their tireless efforts to promote religious and ethnic harmony and tolerance, and to their activism against the nuclearization of the subcontinent – ‘a mad race which may lead humanity to its destruction’.
Since then, the Prize has acquired a high international status, as evident from its present jury, which is chaired by Nobel Prize laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu and comprises former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Boutros Boutros Ghali; former Prime Minister of India, Inder Kumat Gujral; and other eminent personalities. |
|
|
|
