M. ADOLFO PÉREZ ESQUIVEL
NOBEL PEACE PRIZE LAUREATE, PRESIDENT OF SERPAJ-AL (ARGENTINA)

Adolfo Pérez Esquivel started working with Christian grassroots organizations directed towards the poorest areas in the 1960s. He then actively took part in non-violent movements. He contributed to the creation of the SERPAJ (Peace and Justice Service) which, along with other organizations, became a place for defense of human rights. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in October 1980. He continues, in Argentina and abroad, to defend life, childrens' rights and education to peace and human rights.

M. DAVID ADAMS
FUNDACIÓN CULTURA DE PAZ

In 1992, Dr. David Adams presented the project of a culture of peace programme to Dr. Federico Mayor, Director- General of UNESCO. After developing this programme at UNESCO, Dr. Adams directed in 2000 the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the Manifesto 2000 campaign (75 million signatures around the world). He then launched the Decade. In 2005, representing the Fundación Cultura de Paz and its President Federico Mayor, he coordinated the Civil Society Report to the United Nations at the mid-point of the Decade.

SISTER MARIE-BERNARD ALIMA MBALULA
EXECUTIVE SECRETARY OF THE JUSTICE AND PEACE COMMISSION (DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO)

Sister Marie-Bernard Alima Mbalula is Executive Secretary of the Justice and Peace Commission of the Bishops' Conference of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (CENCO) and Executive Secretary of the Justice and Peace Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of Great Lakes Central African Organization (ACEAC) including Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda. She attended numerous trainings on education sciences, education sociology and peace-building.

M. NAFEZ ASSAILY
LIBRARY ON WHEELS FOR NON-VIOLENCE AND PEACE / IFOR (PALESTINE)

Nafez Assaily is director of the Library on Wheels for Nonviolence and Peace, which offers educational programs for Palestinian children. LOWNP developed a variety of ideas to explore the significance and the practice of non-violence and peace in Islamic tradi-tion, enhance its practical use at personal, family, school and also at the social level under violent situations. LOWNP's presence and activities are helping make a positive impact in the quality of life for thousands of Palestinian families.
Partner of the CCFD

MME TERESA CAMPOS CHONG
CENTRE FOR COMMUNITY EDUCATION OF THE HIGH PROVINCES OF CUZCO - CCEPA (PERU)

Teresa Campos Chong is responsible for the CCEPA (Centre for Community Education of the High Provinces of Cuzco), an organisation founded by the Church. Its mission is two-fold: civic training of community leaders and managers of organisations relating to workers, women and young people; and assistance and advice to local public instances. Through its training programme, it helps in building participative democracy. CCEPA bases its work on integral development, egalitarian relationships between men and women and social justice.
Partner of Secours Catholique - Caritas France

M. IBRAHIMA FALL
SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE UN SECRETARY GENERAL FOR THE GREAT LAKES (SENEGAL)

Former Foreign Ministry of Senegal, M. Ibrahima Fall served as UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights. In July 2002, he was appointed Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for the Great Lakes Region. He is in charge of the coordination of the International Conference for the Great Lakes Region, which aims at promoting peace and security, democracy and good go-vernance in the region.

MME VIVIANE FORRESTER
NOVELIST AND ESSAYIST (FRANCE)

A literary critic for Le Monde and Jury member of the Femina Prize, Viviane Forrester published, among other, Van Gogh ou l'enterrement des blés (Le Seuil, 1983), Ce soir, après la guerre (Fayard, 1992), L'horreur économique (Fayard 1996), awarded with the Medicis prize for Essay, translated into 32 languages, L'horreur économique (Fayard 2004), and Mes passions de toujours (Fayard, 2005). She is a charter member of Attac, and known at the international level for her critique of globalization.

M. JEAN-BAPTISTE DE FOUCAULD
PRESIDENT OF SOLIDARITÉS NOUVELLES FACE AU CHÔMAGE (FRANCE)

Alumnus of the Ecole Nationale d'Administration, high civil servant, J.-B. de Foucauld has been commissioner for the planning admi-nistration; since 1985, he is chair of the NGO New Solidarities faced with Unemployment, and since 2002 of Democracy and Spiri-tuality; he is a member of the Board of a political club Convictions and leader of the Network for a civic and social Europe. He wrote La société en quête de sens (1995, together with Denis Piveteau) and of 3 cultures du développement humain, résistance, régulation, utopie (2002).

MME ISABELLE GEUSKENS
PROGRAM MANAGER OF THE WOMEN PEACEMAKERS PROGRAM OF IFOR (NETHERLANDS)

Isabelle Geuskens works for the Women Peacemakers Program (WPP) of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation. She graduated in Arts and Sciences, and worked with grassroots activists in Northern Ireland and Bosnia & Herzegovina. From these experiences, she learned of the many risks women take for peace, and how these efforts and skills too often remain unrecognized in formal peace processes. The WPP believes that without peace, development is impossible - and without women, neither peace nor development can take place.

M. ARNAUD GORGEMANS
DIRECTOR OF EURAC - EUROPEAN NETWORK FOR CENTRAL AFRICA (BRUSSELS, BELGIUM)

Arnaud Gorgemans is the Director of EurAC, the European network of NGOs active in Central Africa (40 member organisations from 12 European countries). Its two main activities are advocacy and information about the region. EurAC believes that EU donors should implement a regional policy for the Great Lakes region and put the principles of the Cotonou agreement into practice to ensure that respect for human rights and democratic principles constitute the foundation of development cooperation.

MME HILDEGARD GOSS-MAYR
NIWANO PEACE PRIZE LAUREATE, IFOR (AUSTRIA)

Ms. Hildegard Goss-Mayr is honorary president of IFOR. She is a major witness of evangelical non-violence throughout the world. In 1962, she started promoting the building of a non-violent movement in Latin America. She then collaborated with Dom Helder Cama-ra and Adolfo Pérez Esquivel. She played an important role with her husband Jean Goss in the preparation of the Revolution in the Philippines in 1986. She has formed numerous groups of active non-violence in Latin America, Asia and Africa.

MME BESA HASANI
CARITAS KOSOVO (KOSOVO)

Besa Hasani is an Albanian from Kosovo. Within Caritas, Besa has been specialising in the protection of women and children. In 2002, she became responsible for the question of human rights and, on the occasion of the day against domestic violence, organised the first roundtable meeting of women working in Serbian and Albanian NGOs. This meeting started a concerted effort in favour of women. Besa has coordinated a multiethnic network of women NGOs.
Partner of Secours Catholique - Caritas France

M. YAZID KHERFI
PRESIDENT OF POUVOIR D'AGIR (FRANCE)

Yazid Kherfi has been a so-called “difficult” young men who has been emprisoned several times. Thank to people who trusted him, he became educator in then director of a youth center. Trained in social therapy and educational sciences, he is now a Consultant in Urban Prevention. He intervenes for violence prevention in neighbourhoods, schools, high schools, prisons, or in public debates. He is a trainer in a school for social educators, policemen, and in universities.

M. FULGENCE KONÉ
CATHOLIC INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION OFFICE - OIEC (PARIS, FRANCE)

Fulgence Koné is SGEC Delegate for External Relations, Permanent representation of the OIEC at UNESCO. The OIEC has held in Dakar, in August 2005, a training seminar for trainers of Educators for Peace, reconciliation and living together from 20 African coun-tries. The objective was to share experiences of peace education lead in each country, constitute a group of resource persons to train and work along with educators, and build up networks of intra and extra State partnerships.

MME SOLANGE KONÉ
ASAPSU / REPROJECI (CÔTE D'IVOIRE)

She founded the ASAPSU, an association of support for health and urban self-promotion. Solange Koné deals especially with displaced population and welcoming families, particularly on health and social cohesion aspects. She also created the national forum of struggle against debt and poverty. She presides the Ivory Coast section of the World Women March and the REPROJECI, a network for the promotion of youth in Ivory Coast, which works for socio-professional integration, including ex-combatants.
Partner of the CCFD

MME VÉRONIQUE LE GOAZIOU
SOCIOLOGIST (FRANCE)

Graduated in ethnology, philosophy and social sciences, Véronique Le Goaziou works on various socio-political problematics, in particular on popular neighbourhoods, poverty, and violence. She founded the Agency of Sociology for Action. She published, with Charles Rojzman, Comment ne pas devenir un électeur du Front National (How not to become a National Front voter); with Yazid Kherif, Repris de justesse; La violence; with Pierre Tritz, Prêtre en banlieue (Priest in suburbs), an unlikely meeting between a priest and young sociologist; with Laurent Mucchielli, Quand les banlieues brûlent (When Suburbs burn), on urban riots in November 2005.

M. SRI LOGANATHAN
ASSEFA ((INDIA)

Sri Loganathan is one of the founders of ASSEFA, an important Indian development organization whose aim is to improve the living conditions of the farming population through rural development and by improving their skills and sense of social responsibility. He is also a tireless advocate of peace and non-violence and has developed activities to demonstrate the importance of education to non-violence as a key to justice in the world. He frequently travels abroad, to address seminars on development and peace.
Partner of Partage

MME ELISABETH MAHEU-VAILLANT
FRENCH COALITION FOR THE DECADE / IFMAN (FRANCE)

Elizabeth Maheu, housewife, worked as junior high school teacher, camp leader for teenagers, trainer in the Training Institute of the MAN and author of the book “Sanctionner sans punir, dire les règles pour vivre ensemble”. She works currently as a trainer in the IUFM of Rouen on the questions of violence prevention and conflict regulation. She contributed to the elaboration of the peace and non-violence education programme published by the French Coalition for the Decade.

M. IVAN MAROVIC
OTPOR (SERBIA)

Ivan Marovic is a founder of the Otpor nonviolent resistance movement against Slobodan Milosevic. After the successful democratic transition in Serbia in 2000, he began consulting with civil society and pro-democracy groups worldwide, and is a leading trainer in the field of strategic nonviolent conflict. He was recently a consultant on the development of "A Force More Powerful-The Game of Nonviolent Strategy," the first interactive teaching tool on civic nonviolent struggle played on the computer.
Partner of ICNC

M. SAMUEL MAWETE
UNESCO CHAIR IN BRAZZAVILLE (CONGO)

Graduated in education science, professor Samuel Mawete wrote a dissertation on the culture of peace as an education programme of UNESCO. Professor in the University Marien Mgoubai in Congo and in the UNESCO Chair in Brazzaville, he is also consultant in UNESCO and in UNDP. Author of L'éducation à la culture de la paix en Afrique subsaharienne : Enjeux et perspectives, he conducts a study on educating ex-combatants in a country in a post-conflict situation to citizenship, to civic values and peace.

M. BOBAN MIRKOVIC
CARITAS KOSOVO (KOSOVO)

Boban Mirkovic is a Serb from Kosovo. Boban first worked in favour of refugee and displaced children north of Mitrovica through the organisation of common activities and the development of inter-community dialogue. Boban then became responsible for Caritas projects in north of Mitrovica. Since 2004, Boban has been in charge of followup with respect to Caritas projects within a multiethnic team. His skills as a mediator have led him to play a key role in bringing together the different communities.
Partner of Secours Catholique - Caritas France

M. JEAN-MARIE MULLER
MAN / ICP COMMITTEE (FRANCE)

National spokesman of the Movement for a Nonviolent Alternative (MAN), Jean-Marie Muller is the director of studies at the Research Institute on Nonviolent Conflict Resolution (IRNC). As a philosopher and writer, he is the author of a number of books on non-violence, which have been published abroad for some of them. Lecturer and trainer, he is invited all around the world by human rights organizations. His last book is the Non-violence Dictionary (Dictionnaire de la non-violence, Le Relié Poche, 2005).

M. ELEUME NARCISO RAMOS
ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITY COUNCILS AND ORGANISATIONS OF LOWER ATRATO - ASCOBA (COLOMBIA)

ASCOBA is an organization which gathers 53 Afro- Colombian and native communities of the north west of the country, and represents today about 15,000 people. This organisation is directly inspired by non-violence and peaceful resistance values of peace communities. Their wish is to organize population facing violences of armed people in a very conflicting region, where natural resources are always more coveted. ASCOBA plays a role of interlocutor facing the state and armed actors, FARC and paramilitary militia.

MME SIGRID NIEDERMAYER
INTERNATIONAL COORDINATOR OF THE UNESCO ASSOCIATED SCHOOLS PROJECT (PARIS, FRANCE)

Dr. Sigrid Niedermayer works at UNESCO, as the International Coordinator of the UNESCO Associated Schools Project, a worldwide network of some 8,000 schools in 176 countries, promoting education for peace and international understanding. She is particularly interested in issues of non-violent conflict resolution and intercultural education within formal educational systems, including countries in post-conflict situations such as Bosnia, Rwanda and Haiti.

M. ANDRÉ DE PERETTI
PSYCHOSOCIOLOGIST

Engineer, PhD graduate in Literature and Human sciences, André de Peretti held several professional charges: Engineer, teacher, member of Parliament, social psychologist, trainer, researcher. He has written several scientific, teaching and litterature books. He has been consultant of several Education ministers, and has headed a departmental committee on the training of Educators of the French State Education System (1981- 1982) that gave birth to the IUFM (University Institute for the training of Teachers).

MME MARIA-RÉGINE ROSINE POATY
PERMANENT SECRETARY OF THE JUSTICE AND PEACE COMMISSION (CONGO BRAZZAVILLE)

Oil interests in the Congo are considered as the primary cause of the war. The Justice and Peace Commission of the Bishop's conference denounces the bad socio-economic situation of the population and advocates an effective use of oil resources to develop the country.
Partner of Secours Catholique - Caritas France

M. RAJAGOPAL
VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE GANDHI PEACE FOUNDATION (INDIA)

Mr. Rajagopal is the Vice-President of the Ghandi Peace Foundation and founder of Ekta Parishad (United forum). Now in his fifties, he spends most of his time with poor peasants in India. After the Vinôba actions, he organized large popular movements, as marches gathering more than 500,000 people, to demand that governments of the different Indian states give land parcels to landless peasants, in order to avoid the dramatic consequences of rural immigration to the cities.

M. CHARLES ROJZMAN
PSYCHOTHERAPIST AND WRITER (FRANCE)

Charles Rojzman, founder and director of Transformation thérapies sociales (Transformations Social Therapies), manages currently the Center of Training and Research on Democratic Practices (Arles, South France). He is the autor of La peur, la haine et la démocratie (Desclée de Brouwer, 1992, 2000) and of Comment ne pas devenir un électeur du Front National (How to not become a National Front voter), in collaboration with Véronique Le Goaziou, Desclée de Brouwer, 1998).

M. JEAN-PIERRE ROSENCZVEIG
PRESIDENT OF DÉFENSE DES ENFANTS INTERNATIONAL (FRANCE)

Jean-Pierre Rosenczveig is the Presiding judge of the juvenile court of Bobigny, and Vice-president of the superior court of Bobigny. Moreover, he presides many associations defending children.

M. ALESSANDRO ROSSI
EUROPEAN COORDINATOR OF NONVIOLENT PEACEFORCE (ITALY)

Alessandro Rossi is the European Coordinator of Nonviolent Peaceforce, an international organisation which gathers around a hundred non-violent organisations worldwide to create an international unarmed peacekeeping force composed of trained civilians to support local peace actors. In Italy, he led the Centro Studi Difesa Civile (Studies Centre for Civil Defence) and carried out, among publications and trainings, the European Civil Peace Corps and the means of civil intervention in armed conflict areas.

MME SUSI SNYDER
SECRETARY GENERAL OF THE WOMEN'S INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FORPEACE AND FREEDOM - WILPF (UNITED STATES)

Susi Snyder is the Secretary General of the WILPF. She monitors various issues under the aegis of the United Nations, including sustainable development, human rights, and disarmament. Previously, Susi served as the Director of WILPF's United Nations office. Before coming to WILPF, Ms. Snyder was a staff member at the Shundahai Network, an indigenous led organization based in the U.S.A. Ms. Snyder has presented papers and testimony at more than 40 U.S. governmental hearings regarding nuclear weapons, power and waste.

M. CORNELIO SOMMARUGA
INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT OF INITIATIVES OF CHANGE (SWITZERLAND)

Former Swiss State Secretary for external economic affairs, Cornelio Sommaruga was President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from 1987 to 1999. Then, he was a member of the Panel on UN Peace Operations and of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty. He is the President of the International Association for Initiatives of Change and of the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining.

MME STELLA TAMANG
BIKALPA GYAN KENDRA / IFOR (NEPAL)

Stella Tamang was born in a poor family, to illiterate parents. For many years now she has been engaged in providing education to young Nepalese girls and in peace education. She founded a school, Bhrishutti Secondary School, and now runs an alternative vocational centre, Bikalpa Gyan Kendra, which seeks to protect young women from exploitation. She is also the chairperson of the Nepalese branch of IFOR, working to promote a culture of peace and non-violence in this country ravaged by the civil war.
Partner of Partage

MME JACQUELINE UWIMANA
UMUSEKE (RWANDA)

Jacqueline Uwimana is in charge of the association UMUSEKE. She coordinates a programme of peace education, which uses a pedagogic exposition “The path to peace”. Developed during years after the genocide in Rwanda, this project aims at educating young people aged from 10 to 14 to citizenship and to building of peace. It makes them be sensitive to values of tolerance and res-pect of the others. At last, it aims at developing a critical sense which enables them to avoid manipulations.
Partner of the CCFD

M. JEAN VANIER
FOUNDER OF THE ARCHE (CANADA / FRANCE)

In 1950, Jean Vanier resigned from the British Navy to “follow Jesus”. In 1964, after philosophy and theology studies, he founded in Trosly-Breuil with Father Thomas Philippe “the Arch”. From this first Arch, many were born all around the world. In 1971, he founded with Marie-Hélène Mathieu “Faith and Light”, which gathers handicapped people, their friends and relatives. Today, he still lives in his community, and conducts conferences and retreats.

French Coalition for the Decade
148 rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis F-75010 PARIS
Tel: +33 (0)1 46 33 41 56 - Fax: +33 (0)1 40 51 70 02
coordination@decennie.org - www.decennie.org