The U Thant Peace Award was created by

Sri Chinmoy Chinmoy Kumar Ghose (27 August 1931 – 11 October 2007), better known as Sri Chinmoy, was an Indian spiritual leader who taught meditation in the United States after moving to New York City in 1964.U Thant Thant ( ; 22 January 1909 – 25 November 1974), known honorifically as U Thant (), was a Burmese diplomat and the third secretary-general of the United Nations from 1961 to 1971, the first non-Scandinavian as well as Asian to hold the positio ...

's death. First offered in 1982, the award is given to individuals and organizations who have exemplified the lofty spiritual ideals of the late

United Nations Secretary-General The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or UNSECGEN) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the United Nations System#Six principal organs, six principal organs of ...

U Thant and implemented those ideals in the tireless pursuit of world peace.

Recipients

It had been bestowed by The Peace Meditation at the United Nations upon

Mahathir Mohamad Mahathir bin Mohamad (; ; born 10 July 1925) is a Malaysian politician, author and doctor who was respectively the fourth and seventh Prime Minister of Malaysia, prime minister of Malaysia from 1981 to 2003 and from 2018 to 2020. He was the ...

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela ( , ; born Rolihlahla Mandela; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist and politician who served as the first president of South Africa f ...

Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

Mother Teresa Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu (born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, ; 26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), better known as Mother Teresa or Saint Mother Teresa, was an Albanian-Indian Catholic Church, Roman Catholic nun, founder of the Missionaries of ...

Javier Pérez de Cuéllar Javier Felipe Ricardo Pérez de Cuéllar de la Guerra ( , ; 19 January 1920 – 4 March 2020) was a Peruvian diplomat and politician who served as the fifth secretary-general of the United Nations from 1982 to 1991. He later served as prime min ...

Kurt Waldheim Kurt Josef Waldheim (21 December 1918 – 14 June 2007) was an Austrian politician and diplomat. Waldheim was the Secretary-General of the United Nations#List of secretaries-general, secretary-general of the United Nations from 1972 to 1981 a ...

the

Dalai Lama The Dalai Lama (, ; ) is the head of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. The term is part of the full title "Holiness Knowing Everything Vajradhara Dalai Lama" (圣识一切瓦齐尔达喇达赖喇嘛) given by Altan Khan, the first Shu ...

Desmond Tutu Desmond Mpilo Tutu (7 October 193126 December 2021) was a South African Anglican bishop and theologian, known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then Archbishop ...

, Dada Vaswani,

Swami Satchidananda Satchidananda Saraswati (; 22 December 1914 – 19 August 2002), born C. K. Ramaswamy Gounder and known as Swami Satchidananda, was an Indian yoga guru and religious teacher, who gained following in the West. He founded his own brand of Integra ...

and U Thant's daughter, Daw Aye Aye Thant. The U Thant Distinguished Lecture Series is a forum through which eminent thinkers and world leaders speak on the role of the United Nations in addressing the challenges facing the world's peoples and nations in the 21st century. The lecture series is co-organized by the

United Nations University The is the think tank and academic arm of the United Nations. Headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan, with diplomatic status as a UN institution, its mission is to help resolve list of global issues, global issues related to Human development ...

and the Science Council of Japan. The UNU has a tradition of inviting world leaders and renowned individuals to Tokyo to explore the role of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

in a rapidly changing world. The U Thant Distinguished Lecture Series builds upon this tradition by providing an opportunity for Nobel laureates and heads of state, current and former, to share their insights and experiences with scholars, policymakers, business leaders and the public. On April 8, 2006, the Award was offered to

Kofi Annan Kofi Atta Annan (8 April 193818 August 2018) was a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the founder a ...

, who refused it. Similarly in 2007,

Ban Ki-moon Ban Ki-moon (born 13 June 1944) is a South Korean politician and diplomat who served as the eighth secretary-general of the United Nations between 2007 and 2016. Prior to his appointment as secretary-general, Ban was the South Korean minister ...

declined the Award.

Recipients of the U Thant Peace award

References

{{reflist, refs=

New Straits Times The ''New Straits Times'' is an English-language newspaper published in Malaysia. It is Malaysia's oldest newspaper still in print (though not the first), having been founded as a local offshoot of Singapore-based ''The Straits Ti ...

{{cite web, url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1309&dat=19981231&id=CVdIAAAAIBAJ&sjid=xRQEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4668,6488019 , title= King presented with U Thant Peace award , date=1998-12-31 , accessdate=2012-12-01

Hinduism Today ''Hinduism Today'' is a quarterly magazine published by the Himalayan Academy, a nonprofit educational institution, in Kapaʻa, Hawaiʻi, USA. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally, currently in 60 nations. Founded b ...

{{cite web, url=http://www.hinduismtoday.com/blogs-news/hindu-press-international/sri-chinmoy-presents-u-thant-award-to-pm/304.html , title= Sri Chinmoy Presents U Thant Award , date=2001-02-04 , accessdate=2013-03-26

{{cite web, url=http://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=4140 , title= Our Publisher Honored , date=November 2000 , accessdate=2013-03-26 srichinmoy.org {{cite web , url=http://www.srichinmoy.org/service/u_thant_peace_award/index.html , title=The U Thant Peace Award , date=2010 , accessdate=2013-03-26 , archive-date=2013-07-24 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130724090340/http://www.srichinmoy.org/service/u_thant_peace_award/index.html , url-status=dead srichinmoy-reflections.com {{cite web, url=http://www.srichinmoy-reflections.com/ravi-shankar-u-thant-award , title=Ravi Shankar Gets U Thant Peace Award , date=December 2010 , accessdate=2013-03-26 poetseers.org {{cite web, url=http://www.poetseers.org/spiritual-and-devotional-poets/india/swami-satchidananda/ , title=Swami Satchidananda , date= , accessdate=2013-03-26 srichinmoybio.co.uk {{cite web, url=http://www.srichinmoybio.co.uk/news/daw-aye-aye-thant/ , title=Daw Aye Aye Thant , date= , accessdate=2013-03-26

External links

U Thant Peace Award
at Sri Chinmoy.org
Video: Award for Mother Teresa

U Thant Peace Award
at au.sri.chinmoy.life Awards established in 1982 Peace awards Sri Chinmoy