Paris, 5 September {No. 96-153}- UNESCO Director-General Federico Mayor yesterday presented the first Mayors for Peace Prize of the Latin America and Caribbean region to Gloria Cuartas Montoya, mayor of Apartado, Colombia, for her work to promote dialogue in a city beset by armed conflict.
"I am presenting this award to you for your daily contributions to the right to hope, to closer solidarity and to a culture of peace," Mr Mayor said as he presented Ms Cuartas Montoya with a certificate, a trophy and a US$25,000 check during a ceremony in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Apartado,in the Uraba region of the province of Antioquia of north-western Colombia, has been hammered by armed conflict between guerrilla groups and government forces and more recently by the violence generated by drug trafficking.The peace process initiated in Apartado and supported by the city council seeks to govern and to carry out the 1991 Colombian Constitution in the midst of an armed conflict, Ms Cuartas Montoya said.
"In Uraba, we are building an ethical way to live in the middle of a crisis," the mayor said. ''We are preparing our youth, not to be paralysed by pain, but to confront squarely the life that we face today."
"In the middle of this crisis, I believe in my country," Ms Cuartas Montoya added. "I believe in my nation despite the deafening noise of the rifles. I believe in the humble people stalked by the shadow of death that attempts to banish them from the countryside. I believe in the teachers who are gripped by fear in their classrooms."
The Director-General also presented an honourable mention certificate to Lidice Da Mata, the mayor of Salvador (Bahia), Brazil, for her work with the poor, especially by the Mother City Foundation for street children. The Mother City programme attempts to instil the awareness of citizenship in children and adolescents through education, Ms Da Mata explained. "This way of fighting extreme poverty is most efficient for fighting violence," she added.
Mr Mayor also noted that a special mention award will be given to Jaime Ravinet de la Fuente, mayor of Santiago, Chile, for his cultural and urban renewal operations.
An international jury made up of Nobel Prize winners Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Adolfo Perez Esquivel, as well as Brazilian sociologist Herbert de Souza and Jamaican professor Rex Nettleford, examined 35 candidates and made recommendations to the Director-General.Mr Mayor created this prize last May to reward collective steps by mayors and local authorities to promote peace in cities with populations of more than 100,000 in Africa, the Arab States, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean.
The UNESCO Mayors for Peace Prize also seeks to create a regional network of co-operation among municipalities and a data bank on innovative practices.Earlier on Wednesday, Mr Mayor was presented an honoris causa degree from the State University of Rio de Janeiro and a National Library medal for his contributions to education and science. Everyone should have access to learning and knowledge, the Director-General said. "The education train should always stop at the doors of all citizens," he added. Mr Mayor also called on Brazilian intellectuals to back UNESCO in its efforts to preserve cultural diversity, language and other intangible cultural assets.