Adolfo Pérez Esquivel

Adolfo Pérez Esquivel is a committed Artiste Argentinian which received the Nobel Prize of peace for its work of defense of the Human rights. It was born with Buenos Aires (Argentine) on November 26th, 1931. It made its studies with the San Francisco College then at the National school of the Art schools of Buenos Aires and the National university of Plata.

He taught during 25 years in the various levels: primary education, secondary, then university with Faculty of architecture and town planning of the National university of Plata, with the School of the Art schools “Belgrano Handbook” and with the Azul Institute for the professors, always in the province of Buenos Aires. It was found unemployed during all the period of the dictatorship, as from 1976.

Artist

As artist, it develops an intense activity by carrying out exposures, murals and monuments. One can mention in particular the Monument of the Refugees, located at the central seat of Office of the High Commission of the United Nations for the Refugees (HCR) in Switzerland, the mural on the Latin-American People with the cathedral of Riobamba in Ecuador, another mural dedicated to Monseigneur Proaño and to native-born people of Ecuador in Pucahuaïno, a monument with the Mother with Bernal and Azul in the province of Buenos Aires.

Moreover, its two tapestries on the Way of Cross and on the Lent were exposed and reproduced by Misereor in Germany and Fastenopfer in Switzerland, organizations connected with the church of international cooperation. The reproductions of these two works were also distributed in the other countries of Europe, in Canada and in Latin America.

With the service of the Non-violence in Latin America

In the Sixties, it starts to work with the basic organizations of the Christian movements directed towards the poorest sectors. Thereafter, it takes an active part in the movements Non-violents. In 1973, it publishes the review Paix and Justice to make known its philosophy and it continues to organize basic groups in the popular sectors.
La violence unchained in all the Latin-American continent during the dictatorships and the serious violations of the human rights then leads it to assume engagements and responsibilities at the oecumenical level in the groups and the Christian movements for the continent.

En 1975, in Medellin in Colombia, it is named general coordinator for the Latin America of all the groups and movements which work for the release by non-violent Moyens. These groups made up of monk, laic peasants, natives, popular sectors, of basic organizations and intellectuals, all worried by the situation of their various countries, seek to set up of the actions and the policies common vis-a-vis violence and to oppression. They must find alternatives and appropriate responses inside spaces each time more restricted and repressed company. In the majority of the Latin-American countries, military dictatorships were essential and the offenses of sequestration and forced disappearances increase day in day.

Pour to face this situation, an interdependent network with the refugees starts to be set up at the national level as at the international level. With the Chile, under Pinochet, of the thousands of refugees need interdependent assistance and safety for them and their family which they leave to seek in third countries, because Argentina did not offer these guarantees to them.
Les violent repressions, the sequestrations and the assassinations made by the dictatorships of the Paraguay, of the Brazil, Bolivia and Argentina using para-police officers groups and paramilitaries, generated a situation of anguish and insecurity in the people like in the other countries of the continent.

Le military coup d'etat in Argentina leads to a systematic repression against all the social sectors with imprisonments and disappearances of people, tortures and assassinations. Adolfo Pérez Esquivel contributes then to the organization of defense associations of the Human rights and it brings its support to the families concerned. At this point in time emerge from the movements like those of the Mères of the Place of May and the Grandmothers of the Place of May, but also the Permanent Parliament for the Human rights, the Movement for the recovery of the imprisoned Children and missings and the oecumenical Movement for the Human rights.
Il takes part then in the creation and the animation of the Service Peace and Justice (SERPAJ), which, with other organizations, becomes a place of support and defense of the Human rights, and develops a large international campaign to denounce the atrocities of the Argentinian military dictatorship. This activity has as a consequence repression against SERPAJ, in Argentina and in the other countries where this organization exists.

In 1975, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel is made prisoner by the military police force of Brazil to the airport of Sao Paulo, at the same time as the doctor Hildegard Goss-Mayr of the international Mouvement of the reconciliation. Once released, each one turns over in its country.

In August 1976, it is held in Buenos Aires in the central Department of the Federal police. He is imprisoned and tortured without any lawsuit for 14 month and is maintained in release on probation for 14 other months. It is in its prison that it receives the Memorial of Peace Jean XXIII which is decreed to him by Pax Christi International, among other international recognitions.

Nobel Prize of peace

In October 1980, it receives the Nobel Prize of peace for its work of defense of the Human rights. At the time of the reception of this distinction, he says: “I accept this Nobel Prize in the name of the people of Latin America and in particular in the name of poorest and all those which engaged with their people…”

Là, it continues its work in Argentina and in other countries for the defense of the life, the rights of the children and education for peace and the human rights.
Il published the book the Christ in Poncho (1981) and of the articles in various reviews on the situation of the children, the Human rights and the situation socio-policy of the Latin America. In April 1995, in its entitled book To walk on with the people , it describes non-violent experiments in Latin America. In December 1996, it still publishes Una gota tiempo ( a drop of time ), a chronicle which is located between the anguish and the hope and, for the moment, it projects to write a new book which would be entitled Contes of the semi-truths and realities .

Aujourd'hui, the Service Peace and Justice (SERPAJ) works with permanent secretariats in eleven Latin-American countries and includes/understands also groups of solidarity in Europe. He works in popular environments, with the peasants and the indigenous populations on programmes of education to the human rights and peace. The SERPAJ, as ONG, has an advisory statute with UNO and UNESCO. This last organization decreed to him the Price of Education to Peace in 1987.

Face with conflict situations, A. Pérez Esquivel took part, with other Nobel Prize, with international missions of solidarity like that of the “Boat of Paix" with the Nicaragua in 1987 and “Boat of Solidarity in Poland”, but also in many campaigns like those carried out against the serious situation of apartheid in South Africa, in Afghanistan, in the conflict of the Middle East and on the problem of the Tibet under Chinese occupation.
In February 1994, it has belonged to the mission in Thailand of the Nobel Prize of Peace for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Prize of Peace 1991 and captive for more than three years in Burma. This mission visited the Burmese refugee camps in Thailand. The Dalaï Lama, Desmond Tutu, Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams also took part in this mission.
Dans the Latin-American continent, it took part in the campaigns against the invasion of Panama by the United States, and against the civil war with the El Salvador, by claiming the right of the people to their self-determination.
In February 1995, it took the head of the Mission of Peace of the SERPAJ against the war between the Peru and the Ecuador, by visiting the border zones in these two countries.

En membership of the permanent Court of the People, it took part in March 1995 has a new session of this same Court which dealt with problem of “the Violation of the basic rights of the children”. In June of this same year, at the request of several organizations and Mexican personalities, it took the head of another mission of peace in the conflict which takes place with the Chiapas with the Mexico.
In December 1995, it went to Hiroshima to take part with other Nobel Prize in the conference on “the Future of the Hope”. In March 1999, it carried out with Mairead Corrigan, which is it also Nobel Prize of Peace, a voyage in Iraq for better knowing the situation of these people and claiming the end of the blockade.

Actuellement, it continues with the Service Peace and Justice the realization of the project “Aldea Niños La Paz para” (Village of the Children for Peace) whose objective is to work with children in situation of social risk.

Distinctions and responsibilities

He was declared “Citizen famous” of the Town of Buenos Aires by the Municipal council of this in December 1995 City. In December 1996, it received the Price “Citoyen of the World”, allotted by Boston Research Center for the 21st Century and, in 1999, the Price “Pacem in terris” decreed by the diocese of Davenport in the United States.

Il received the title of honorary doctor on behalf of several universities. Among the most known, one finds: the Saint-Joseph University of Philadelphia, the University of Villanova in Pennsylvania, the Christian Brothers College of Memphis, the Major University of San Andrés in Bolivia, the University of XXIe Century also in Bolivia, the Georgetown University in Washington, the University San Marcos in Lima, in Peru, and the University of the State of Sao Paulo in Brazil. Lastly, in Japan, the University of Soka Gakkaï also granted to him this same distinction with that of professor emeritus. He is professor emeritus of the University of San Cristobal de Huamanga with Peru, Recteur of the University of Peace in Barcelona in Spain, president of the academic Council of the University of peace of Namur, in Belgium, and, since September 1998, holder of the Pulpit “Education for Peace and the Human rights” with the Faculty of Social sciences of the University of Buenos Aires.

Actuellement, he is honorary president of the Service Peace and Justice in Latin America (SERPAJ-AL), president of the International League for the Rights and the Release of the People, which has his seat in Milan, member of the Permanent Court of the People and member of the jury of the Price of Promotion of Peace “Felix Houphouët Boigny” of UNESCO. Since 2003, he is also president of the Academy of Environment (IAES) of Venice (Italy).

The Decade for the culture of peace and non-violence (2001-2010)

In 1997, it launched “the Call of the Nobel Prize of Peace for the Children of the World” addressed to the United Nations which declared the year 2000 “Year International of the culture of the peace” and which declared the first decade of the new millenium “international Décennie for the promotion of a culture of non-violence and peace with the profit of the children of the world”.
Il belonged to the Council of “the International Year of the Culture of Peace” and he is member of the Committee of sponsorship of the international Coordination for the Decade of the culture of peace and non-violence.

Altermondialism

It takes part in various worldwide social forums, and belonged to the 19 personalities which proposed the Manifeste of Porto Alegre in 2005.

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