Conflict Resolution: Fascinating Photos

Here are some of great figures in peace making. For 45 years Mother Teresa administered to India’s sick and poor. She became a voice of the impoverished and helpless. By the time of her death she administered 610 missions in 123 countries.

Nelson Mandela, the president of South Africa from 1994-1999, was a prisoner under the apartheid regime for 27 years. He led the African Nation Congress in negotiations with the apartheid government, which led to multi-racial democracy.

Jody Williams launched the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) in 1992. Since then, the campaign has multiplied into 1,000 organizations across the world. Through her work, the ICBL helped ratify an international treaty banning antipersonnel landmines.

Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin signed a peace accord with the Palestinians in 1994. His work began a decade-long peace negotiation between Israel and its neighbors. His assassination by a Jewish fundamentalist in 1995 was one of the great tragedies of the peace process.

Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo was appointed the head of the Catholic Church in East Timor in 1983. During that time Indonesia launched what was known as the Kraras massacre in which the army killed over 400 Timorese. During the period of occupation from 1974-1999 there were over 120 massacres. Belo brought the crisis to the attention of the world.

Kofi Annan served two terms (1997-2006) as the Secretary-General of the United Nations where he mobilized the organization in the global battle again HIV and global terrorism.

The last president of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev orchestrated perestroika and glasnost, which opened the country to the free market, gave greater freedom of speech to the Soviet people.

Using the lessons of civil disobedience, Reverend Martin Luther King was one of the leading voices of the civil rights movement. His work helped bring an end to racial segregation in the United States.

One of the fathers of passive resistance Mohandas Gandhi led campaigns across India to free the country from British rule. He is officially honored as the father of the nation.

Edmund Dene Morel was a British shipping agent in the 1890s who discovered the atrocities perpetrated on the people of the Congo by the Belgians. The traders had enslaved and massacred the indigenous population for the purpose of harvesting rubber and ivory. Morel founded the Congo Reform Association, which eventually won a victory over the Belgian royalty.

The Red Cross has won the Nobel Peace Prize four times because of the valuable work it does to alleviate suffering. There are 100 million volunteers worldwide. By international law, the International Committee of the Red Cross may enter conflict areas to administer to the suffering.

International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War produces research on the environmental dangers of nuclear war. Since it won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985 it has begun to research the causes of conflict in order to prevent future wars.

Aside from being a great physicist, Albert Einstein was a powerful voice in the effort to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Along with several of the great intellectuals of his day, he had hoped to put an end to nuclear weapons testing.