Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been awarded the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize of UNESCO in recognition of its action to welcome refugees, said this specialized agency of the UN in a statement.
"The entire jury was moved by her courageous decision, made in 2015, to take in more than 1.2 million refugees from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Eritrea. It’s a lesson that goes down in history"highlighted the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner Denis Mukwege in the statement from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco).
"Suffering is universal, solutions to suffering must also be universal. Building peace also consists of opening the doors to those who suffer"Azoulay added.
Merkel, who was chancellor of Germany between 2005 and 2021, promoted in 2015 some of the European policies that in the 2015 migration crisis in Europe they facilitated the reception of millions of refugees, 900,000 of them in Germany in 2015 alone.
But these controversial measures were heavily criticized in some sectors of German politics, especially on the extreme right, when some refugees or asylum seekers were implicated in high-profile crimes, such as the New Year’s Eve sexual assaults in various German cities.
The jury, also made up of former IMF Managing Director Michel Camdessus, Colombian writer Santiago Gamboa Samper, astronaut Thomas Pesquet, American actor Forest Whitaker and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Hayat Sindi, also awarded a special mention to Julienne Lusenge for her commitment to victims of sexual violence.
Lusenge, a Congolese activist, is known for her work in North Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where she has denounced the use of rape as a weapon of war. She is one of the personalities most involved in defending women’s rights.
This award, whose delivery date has not yet been announced, was created in 1989 to annually honor individuals, institutions and private or public organizations who have made a significant contribution to the promotion and maintenance of peace.
It has been awarded in other editions to renowned personalities such as Nelson Mandela and Jimmy Carter, among others.