( Spanish) – Former US President Jimmy Carter won in 2002 the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in finding peaceful solutions to conflicts and promoting human rights, an award that at the time was also considered a criticism of then-President George W. Bush’s campaign to intervene Iraq.
The Nobel committee then highlighted Carter’s decades of “tireless efforts” to “find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, advance democracy and human rights, and promote economic and social development.”
By then Carter, who served as president from 1977 to 1981, had been repeatedly nominated for the award. He came close to winning it in 1979, when he brought together then-Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to sign the Camp David peace agreement that ended 31 years of war between the two.
Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 among 156 candidates (117 individuals and 39 groups) who competed for the award in that edition.
Behind the recognition was the work of the Carter Center, which he founded after leaving the White House in 1981, after losing re-election to Ronald Reagan.
“When I left the White House I was a fairly young man and I realized that I might have 25 more years of active life left,” Carter explained at the time, “so we took advantage of the influence I had as the former president of the largest nation in the world. world and we decided to fill gaps.”
Sump He spent the decades after leaving the White House traveling around the world to monitor elections, promote human rights, and provide health care and food to countries in need.
The Carter Center, in fact, has observed a total of 113 elections in 39 countries since 1989. Another of its main achievements is the near eradication of Guinea worm disease, which went from more than three million cases in 1986 to 14 cases in 2021.
The announcement of the award came just hours after a milestone that would mark the recent history of the United States: the green light from Congress for then-President George W. Bush to use military force against Iraq.
When asked whether the former president’s choice was a criticism of Bush, Gunnar Berge, director of the Nobel committee, then said: “With the position that Carter has taken on the matter, it can and should also be seen as a criticism of the line that the current US administration has adopted regarding Iraq.”
However, other members of the Nobel committee distanced themselves from Berge’s criticism of Bush. At the time they stated that the director was expressing a personal opinion and that those criticisms were not part of the discussions that resulted in Carter’s selection.
The truth is that in its description of Carter’s peace work, the committee said in 2002: “In a situation currently marked by threats of the use of power, Carter has stood firm on the principles that conflicts must be resolved. , to the extent possible, through mediation and international cooperation based on international law, respect for human rights and economic development.”
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