Paris, 2 September {No. 96-152}- Gloria Isabel Cuartas Montoya, the mayor of the city of Apartado, Colombia,will be honoured with the first UNESCO Mayors for Peace Prize of the Latin America and the Caribbean region, Director-General Federico Mayor announced today.
The US$25,000 prize will be awarded to Ms Cuartas Montoya to recognise her foresight and courage in promoting peace in Apartado, a city in northwestern Colombia that has been besieged for nearly 30 years by guerrilla warfare and is in the heart of a region plagued by drug traffickers. The prize money is to be used by the municipality.
Lidice Da Mata, the mayor of Salvador (Bahia), Brazil, will be recognised with an honourable mention for managing creatively this northeastern city that is a cultural crossroads and the largest black-populated city outside Africa. A special mention will be awarded to Jaime Ravinet de la Fuente, mayor of Santiago, Chile, whose urban renewal operations have led to reversing the trend of urban flight to the suburbs and raised schooling levels in this capital city.
The Director-General will present these awards on 4 September during a ceremony at the International Congress on Cities and Education for a Culture of Peace in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. During his three-day official visit to this country, Mr Mayor will also meet with President Fernando Henrique Cardoso as well as the Brazilian ministers of education and culture.
After examining 35 candidates, an international jury made up of Nobel Prize winners Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Adolfo Perez Esquivel, as well as the Brazilian professor Herbert de Souza and Rex Nettleford, a professor from Jamaica, made these recommendations to the Director-General.
Mr Mayor created this prize, a move that was endorsed by municipal leaders during the World Assembly of Cities and Local Authorities that was held 30-31 May in Istanbul. The prize honours exemplary actions to combat social exclusion and promote community dialogue, peace and citizenship.The UNESCO Mayors for Peace Prize will be awarded every two years to the leaders of cities with populations of more than 100,000 in five regions: Africa, the Arab States, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. This award also seeks to create a regional network of co-operation among municipalities and a data bank on innovative practices. Nominations for the four other regional prizes will be accepted until 30 November.