Luxembourg celebrates the 7th Annual Luxembourg Peace Prize

Jack Sim is the founder of the Restroom Association of Singapore, the World Toilet Organization, the World Toilet Day Initiative and Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) Hub. His vision with WTO was a world with a clean, safe toilet for everyone, everywhere at all times. His mission is to continue to build the global sanitation movement through collaborative action that inspires and drives demand for sanitation, and provides innovative solutions to achieve sustainable sanitation for all. http://worldtoilet.org

Women Wage Peace is the largest non-partisan grassroots movement in Israel. In the two years since its inception, in the midst of Operation Protective Edge, thousands of women, from all walks of life holding different political positions, have joined together. Their stand is unique, as the movement does not believe in endorsing one specific solution, instead it is open to an array of possibilities and does not presume to offer an answer.

Since its incorporation in 2003, the Alliance for Peacebuilding (AfP) has grown from a small cluster of conflict resolution practitioners to the institutional home for the peacebuilding community. AfP works to harness collective action for peace through mobilizing its diverse network of over 103 organizational members, and over 1,000 individual members, that are active in 153 countries. Its members include some of the world’s largest development organizations, most innovative academic institutions, and the most powerful peacebuilding groups. They bring together coalitions in key areas of strategy and policy to elevate the entire peacebuilding field, tackling issues too large for any one organization to address alone. Their vision is a world where each person feels secure, dignified, and included; a world where people manage conflict without violence and build peace. www.allianceforpeacebuilding.org

A global organisation deploying civilian peacekeepers in areas of armed conflict. One of the most respected and dedicated in the field. They are doing exceptional work in South Sudan and are now developing civilian peacekeeping engagement in Syria. There are few organisations more dedicated or brave in the field. They now also have extremely good relations with the UN, many governments who have come to understand, respect and support the importance of their work, and literally hundreds of thousands of people around the world who know of, admire and are inspired by them. Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize in 2016. www.nonviolentpeaceforce.org

PCDN democratizes access to information to help individuals and organizations sustain and scale social change. It envisions a world in which all have access to resources, information and inspiration to create positive change in the world. PCDN is the go-to-hub for the global social change community, connecting over 36,500 individuals and organizations engaged in peacebuilding, social entrepreneurship, development and related fields. It provides a one-stop shop to inspire, connect, inform and provide the tools and resources to scale social change. PCDN has had a tremendous positive impact to thousands around the world through providing access to career opportunities, funding for organizations, and daily news to changemakers in the often long hard slog of advancing change. https://pcdnetwork.org/

He is a youth development, civil society activist and a youth expert on peace building and fights against violent extremism with nine years of experience. He was born in a community renowned for youth involvement in violence and violent extremist activities like: jungle justice, kidnapping, gangs, socio-cultural and religious conflicts, armed robbery, street fighting, just to name a few. Even though he was a victim of radicalisation and violence, he succeeded in transforming himself from an agent of violence to an Ambassador of peace and change. With the most recent rise in violent extremism in Cameroon and the world, Achaleke through his organization and other affiliations, is currently championing youth action for peace and preventing/countering violent extremism, including work in prisons where prisoners and prison authorities explore ways to engage one another despite their violent radical pasts. In his nine years of service to young people and communities, he has empowered and reached out to over one million young people through face to face and media programs both in Cameroon and abroad. Achaleke was named Commonwealth’s Young Person of the Year in 2016. https://achalekeblog.wordpress.com

The SEKEM Initiative was founded to realize the vision of sustainable human development. Its mission is the development of the individual, society and environment through a holistic concept which integrates economic, societal and cultural life. Above all, SEKEM aspires to be an impulse for continuous development in all parts of life, to be not only a model for, but also a contribution to, the development of the entire world. In 1977, Dr. Ibrahim Abouleish started the SEKEM Initiative on an untouched part of the Egyptian desert (70 hectares) 60 km northeast of Cairo. Using Biodynamic agricultural methods, desert land was revitalized and a striving agricultural business developed. Over the years, SEKEM became the umbrella of a multifaceted agro-industrial group of companies and NGOs. Today, SEKEM is regarded as a leading social business worldwide. www.sekem.com

We are awarding it jointly to the governments of North Korea and South Korea. Giving the award to the North and South Korea peace process is a way of ‘supporting’ efforts there.