Mandating and Founding Members
Adolfo Esquivel
Nobel Peace Prize -1980
Adolfo Pérez Esquivel was born in Buenos Aires in 1931. After training as an architect and sculptor he was appointed Professor of Architecture. In 1974 he relinquished his teaching post in order to devote all his time and energy to the work of co-ordinating the activities of the various non-violent elements in Latin America. It was at a conference in Montevideo in 1968 that the decision was made to set up a joint organisation covering all non-violent elements throughout Latin America. At a conference in 1974 it was decided to give the organisation a more permanent form, and Pérez Esquivel was appointed its Secretary-General. In 1976 he initiated an international campaign aimed at persuading the United Nations to establish a Human Rights Commission, and in this connection a document was drawn up recording breaches of human rights in Latin America. In the Spring of 1977 Pérez Esquivel was imprisoned without cause being shown. In May 1978 he was released, but with the obligation to report to the police as well as being subject to various restrictions. These have subsequently been allowed to lapse, and in 1980 he had an opportunity of visiting Europe.
The organisation of which Pérez Esquivel is the leader, Servicio Paz y Justicia, is a well-established one. Latin America is divided into three regions, each with its own offices, and under these come the national organisations. Their activities are co-ordinated from Pérez Esquivel's office in Buenos Aires.
Desmond Tutu
Nobel Peace Prize - 1984
Desmond Tutu was born on 7th October 1931 in Klerksdorp, Transvaal. His father was a teacher, his mother relatively uneducated.The young Tutu is raised in an atmosphere of tolerance and sympathy where, he later says, "I never learnt to hate". At the age of 12 he first met and was later greatly influenced by Father Trevor Huddleston, an Anglican cleric in the Johannesburg township of Sophiatown and outspoken early critic of apartheid.
In 1958, following the introduction of Bantu education, the Archbishop decided to enter the ministry in the Church of the Province of Southern Africa and become an ordinand at St Peter's Theological College, Rosettenville. He received his Licentiate in Theology in 1960 and was ordained to the priesthood in Johannesburg in 1961. Shortly afterwards he went to study in London, where he obtained the Bachelor of Divinity Honours and Master of Theology degrees while acting as a part-time curate. In 1967 he returned to South Africa and joined the staff of the Federal Theological Seminary in Alice and became chaplain at the University of Fort Hare. He moved to the University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland in 1970 where he held the post of lecturer in the Department of Theology. This step was followed by a further spell in England as Associate Director of the Theological Education Fund of the World Council of Churches, based in Kent, UK.
He remained an educator until 1972 when he became the first black to hold the position of Dean of St. Mary's Cathedral in Johannesburg. He held such a distinction once again three years later as the first black to be General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches.
In 1984, Tutu receives the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of "the courage and heroism shown by black South Africans in their use of peaceful methods in the struggle against apartheid".
Frederik de Klerk
Nobel Peace Prize - 1993
Frederik Willem de Klerk was born in Johannesburg on March 18, 1936. He is the son of Senator Jan de Klerk, a leading politician, who became minister in the South African government. His brother Willem is a liberal newspaperman and one of the founders of the Democratic Party.
F.W. de Klerk graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of law degree from Potchefstroom University in 1958 and then practiced law in Vereeniging in the Transvaal. De Klerk was offered a professorship of administrative law at Potchefstroom in 1972 but he declined the post because he had been elected to Parliament as National Party member for Vereeniging at the time.
After becoming the Minister of National Education, F.W. de Klerk was a supporter of segregated universities, and as a leader of the National Party in Transvaal, he was not known to advocate reform. In February 1989, de Klerk was elected leader of the National Party and in September 1989 he was elected State President. F.W.de Klerk is best known for the role he played in transforming South Africa into a
non-racial democracy. He resigned from his office as President in May 1996. As his country's first 'television president', de Klerk developed a friendlier, more open and accessible relationship with the media than any of his predecessors. He was widely praised for his efforts to keep South Africa on the negotiations path during its transition into a non-racial democracy, and for the serene self-confidence he displayed during the transition.
He was a co-recipient with Nelson Mandela of the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize for the leading role he played in the democratisation of South Africa. He retired from active politics in September 1997.
Mairead Macguire Corrigan
Nobel Peace Prize - 1976
Mairead Maguire was born Mairead Corrigan in Belfast, Northern Ireland in January 1944. She studied in St. Vincent’s Primary School in Belfast, and Miss Gordons Commercial College for a year. Mairead worked with Catholic Organisations as a voluntary worker, and helped establish clubs for many physically handicapped children, teenagers and preschool play groups.
She has continued her work with the Community of Peace People, advocating a nonviolent resolution of the Northern Ireland conflict in speaking engagements and writings. Among other projects, the Peace People organise summer camps in other European countries to provide a setting in which young Catholics and Protestants from Northern Ireland can come to know one another. The Peace People also have continued the outreach to prisoners and their families.
Mairead was a co-founder of the Committee on the Administration of Justice, a non-sectarian organisation of Northern Ireland which defends human rights and advocates repeal of the government’s emergency laws.
Michael Nobel
Michael Nobel, Ph.D., has served as a director of BSD since January 1998. Dr. Nobel participated in the introduction of magnetic resonance imaging as European Vice President of Fonar Corp. From 1991 to 2007, Dr. Nobel served as the Executive Chairman of the MRAB Group, a company providing diagnostic imaging services to Sweden. From 1995 to 2006, Dr. Nobel was Chairman of the Board of the Nobel Family Society and the American Non-Violence Project Inc. He has also been a consultant to Unesco in Paris and the United Nations Social Affairs Division in Geneva. Today, Dr. Nobel is chairman or board member of ten international companies in medical diagnostics, treatment and information systems; other areas included banking, IT, oil exploration and environmental management. He is visiting professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan.
Nelson Mandela
Nobel Peace Prize - 1993
Mandela was born at Qunu, near Umtata on 18 July 1919 to Henry Mgadla Mandela, chief councillor to Thembuland's acting paramount chief David Dalindyebo. When his father died, Mandela became the chief's ward and was groomed for the chieftainship.
After completing his degree Mandela was elected national volunteer-in-chief of the 1952 Defiance Campaign. He travelled the country organising resistance to discriminatory legislation. He was given a suspended sentence for his part in the campaign. By 1952 Mandela and Tambo had opened the first black legal firm in the country, and Mandela was both Transvaal president of the ANC and deputy national president. A petition by the Transvaal Law Society to strike Mandela off the roll of attorneys was refused by the Supreme Court.
When the ANC was banned after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, he was detained until 1961 when he went underground to lead a campaign for a new national convention. In 1962 Mandela left the country for military training in Algeria and to arrange training for other MK members. On his return he was arrested for leaving the country illegally and for incitement to strike. He conducted his own defence but was convicted and jailed for five years in November 1962. While serving his sentence, he was charged, in the Rivonia trial, with sabotage and sentenced to life imprisonment.
A decade before being imprisoned, Mandela had spoken out against the introduction of Bantu Education, recommending that community activists "make every home, every shack or rickety structure a centre of learning". Robben Island, where he was imprisoned, became a centre for learning, and Mandela was a central figure in the organised political education classes. In prison Mandela never compromised his political principles and was always a source of strength for the other prisoners. During the 'seventies he refused the offer of a remission of sentence if he recognised Transkei and settled there. In the 'eighties he again rejected PW Botha's offer of freedom if he renounced violence.
It is significant that shortly after his release on Sunday 11 February 1990, Mandela and his delegation agreed to the suspension of armed struggle. Mandela has honorary degrees from more than 50 international universities and is chancellor of the University of the North. He was inaugurated as the first democratically elected State President of South Africa on 10 May 1994 - June 1999. Nelson Mandela retired from Public life in June 1999. He currently resides in his birth place - Qunu, Transkei.
