Nobel Peace Prizewinner Calls for Culture of Peace
an article by David Adams

Speaking at the United Nations on December 20 on the occasion of the first UN Day for South-South Cooperation, the newest Nobel Peace Prizewinner, Wangari Maathai, called for a culture of peace. She said:

"In bestowing the award, the Norwegian Nobel Peace Committee made both an important and a historic decision to show the linkage between peace and sustainable management of resources on one hand and democratic governance on the other. This is a visionary decision and is intended to encourage the world to focus on the causes of conflicts and wars and invest in preventing them ... We should invest in areas, which if addressed, would avoid wars and promote a culture of peace."

Miss Maathai stood out on the UN podium with her down-to-earth style. She spoke with enthusiasm and clarity in everyday words, and she wore a large blue bow in her hair, a refreshing contrast to the customary bureaucratic jargon and the gray-flannel suits of the diplomats.

She provided a holistic vision of the culture of peace: "What we really need is good governance all round, sustainable management of our resources, equitable distribution of those resources and deliberate efforts to engage in dialogue, avoid conflicts and thereby build a culture of peace for development to take place."

She used an African image to make her point: "In explaining this, I have used the metaphor of an African 3-legged stool - each of the legs represents the 3 pillars of democracy, sustainable resource management and peace ... With only one or two pillars, there is imbalance and the basin collapses."

Maathai's speech can be taken as an implicit criticism of the UN approach to its Millennium Development Goals which seeks to achieve development without any reference to peace or a culture of peace. See related CPNN stories on the Nobel Peace Prize and the Millennium Development Goals. Although this was her first major speech in the United States or at the UN since winning the Nobel Prize, her speech was not covered by the United Nations Press Service or by major media such as CNN.

The full text of her speech is available online.

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This report was posted on December 29, 2004. The moderator is Tony.

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