Greetings to Herbert Kelman: On behalf of Peace

Marcio Nogueira Barbosa
Deputy Director General of UNESCO

As UNESCO's Deputy Director General and as Brazilian citizen, I am glad to join this publication since it represents a special work on behalf of peace. Indeed it presents an important academic effort that join Portugal, Portuguese's homeland, and Brazil, my homeland. This publication resulted from an initiative bringing together scholars and practitioners from many countries of the world – and here I am together with each and every one of them –, to celebrate Dr. Herbert Kelman, who has been distinguished with an Honourable Mention in the UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize 2006 for the promotion of tolerance and non-violence. Once that Prize has been possible thanks to a generous donation by Ambassador Madanjeet Singh, the South Asia Foundation and particularly India, joins this effort.

Therefore, it is a renewed pleasure to congratulate Professor Herbert Kelman for his dedication to researching, writing, teaching and everyday practicing the promotion of tolerance, the dissuasion of violence, and the affirmation of non-violence as a method and as an ethic of life. As mentioned in this Libro, Professor Kelman was born in Vienna 80 years ago; his early experiences regarding Gandhi's life, compounded with the fact that he is a Holocaust survivor and then became an American citizen, makes stronger and more vivid his example of a person committed to scholarly study and to the practical advancement of peace.

When offering prizes, among other aims UNESCO seeks to gather different cultural influences in search of peaceful alternatives of conflicts resolution and protection of human dignity in the world. However, it is uncommon to get all that in one single person, as found in such UNESCO's laureate. Could Dr. Kelman's life and work be an example for scholars, students, practitioners and for all.

 

Paris, June 2007