Organizations
The Elders

The Elders ... perhaps the most impressive small group of older people on the planet

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

The Elders Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) Founder Martti Ahtisaari Kofi Annan Chair of The Elders Ela Bhatt Lakhdar Brahimi Gro Harlem Brundtland Deputy Chair of The Elders Fernando H Cardoso Jimmy Carter Hina Jilani Graça Machel Mary Robinson Desmond Tutu Honorary Elder Ernesto Zedillo

My message ... 150301
The Elders are an inspiration ... but how to get billions of people to change to make the world a better place. I argue for metrics about quality of life and impact on planet not profit and GDP growth

Martti Ahtisaari biography

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Personal note I worked with the United Nations in Namibia immdediately after its independence in March 1990. My work was in connection with the development of a comprehensive development plan for Namibia now that the country was independent. Our team prepared a plan that was presented to a donor conference in New York at the UN in May of that year which was successful in getting pledges of financial support amounting to more than $700 million. Three months later not a single dollar had been delivered, and I was called in to serve as the acting aid coordinator for the Government of Namibia with the task of mobilizing funds as quickly as possible. Over the next few months most of the pledges that had been made were horored by those that had made the commitments. I will say, however, that what I learned about donor countries was deeply concerning, including even those countries which are highly regarded for their development assistance.
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Former President of Finland; Nobel Peace Laureate and expert in international peace mediation, diplomacy and post-conflict state building. President of Finland 1994-2000 Nobel Peace Laureate 2008 Founder of Crisis Management Initiative Honorary citizen of Namibia

“All conflicts can be resolved. Wars and conflicts are not inevitable. They are caused by human beings. There are always interests that are furthered by war. Therefore those who have power and influence can also stop them. Peace is a question of will.”

Work with The Elders

Martti Ahtisaari joined The Elders in 2009, bringing three decades’ experience in international diplomacy and conflict mediation. President Ahtisaari visited the Korean Peninsula with his fellow Elders Gro Brundtland, Jimmy Carter and Mary Robinson in April 2011. In response to high levels of tension and mistrust between North and South Korea, he stressed that progress could only be achieved by the resumption of meaningful dialogue between the parties. In July 2012, he travelled to South Sudan as part of a two-stage Elders delegation to the region to encourage dialogue between Sudan and South Sudan. As well as meeting political and religious leaders, the Elders spent time at a refugee camp near the border [AB1] and called on the international community to step up humanitarian assistance to those displaced by recent fighting. Diplomat and peace-maker Before being elected President of the Republic of Finland in 1994, Martti Ahtisaari enjoyed a distinguished career serving his country and the United Nations. Between 1973 and 1976 he was Finland’s Ambassador in Tanzania. He held several UN roles in Namibia from 1975-1990, and as UN Special Representative he oversaw the country’s transition to independence in March 1989 – and was subsequently made an honorary Namibian citizen. From 1992-1993, while State Secretary in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, Martti Ahtisaari chaired the Bosnia-Herzegovina Working Group of the International Conference on the former Yugoslavia, and was later Special Adviser to the UN Secretary General's Special Representative for the former Yugoslavia. In 1999, as Finnish President, he negotiated with Slobodan Milošević to end the fighting in Kosovo. Post-Presidency: working to resolve conflict Martti Ahtisaari founded and chairs Crisis Management Initiative (CMI), a non-governmental organisation committed to helping the international community practice more effective preventive diplomacy, peacemaking and post-conflict state building. Since leaving the office of President, he has continued to focus on conflict resolution. Most notably, in 2005 he facilitated the peace process between the Government of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement that ended thirty years of conflict. President Ahtisaari helped to advance the Northern Ireland peace process as Inspector of the Irish Republican Army's weapons dumps, alongside fellow Inspector Cyril Ramaphosa, in 2000-2001. In 2005 he was appointed Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for the future status process for Kosovo to oversee the process determining whether Kosovo would become an independent state or remain part of Serbia. In recognition of “his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts”, Martti Ahtisaari was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in December 2008. Global initiatives As well as heading Crisis Management Initiative, Martti Ahtisaari is active in several other non-governmental organisations. He is Co-Chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), a pan-European think-tank that aims to research and promote debate on the development of European values-based foreign policy. He also serves as: Chairman of the Independent Commission on Turkey Director-at-Large of the ImagineNations Group Member of the Silatech Board of Trustees Member of the Prize Committee of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation Member of the Global Commission on Elections, Democracy and Security

Mary Robinson biography First woman President of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights; a passionate, forceful advocate for gender equality, women’s participation in peace-building and human dignity. President of Ireland 1990-1997 United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights 1997-2002 Institutional reformer: brought the human rights agenda into the core of United Nations activities UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region of Africa 2013-2014 Appointed the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Climate Change in 2014

'Part of the wisdom of the Elders is to remind the world that we actually have universal values that are accepted by every government in the world and yet they are not being implemented.'

Work with The Elders

Mary Robinson has been a member of The Elders since the group was founded in 2007 and makes it a priority to bring the concerns of ordinary people to the global stage. She has travelled to the Middle East several times with The Elders to encourage peace efforts and support Israelis and Palestinans working for peaceful coexistence; visited the Korean Peninsula to help ease tensions between North and South Korea and learn more about North Korea’s chronic food crisis; joined an Elders' delegation to Côte d'Ivoire to emphasise the importance of reconciliation following widespread civil conflict in early 2011. In 2012 she visited South Sudan to meet leaders, civil society and refugees from recent fighting, urging a return to dialogue between Egypt's democratic transition. A tireless champion of women’s equality, she also travelled to Ethiopia in June 2011 with her fellow Elders to convene an international meeting of experts and activists working to end child marriage, which was followed by a visit to India in February 2012 to support youth activists tackling early marriage in their own communities. Mrs Robinson also participated in the Elders+Youngers project, an intergenerational dialogue on sustainable development between four Elders and four young change-makers during the Rio+20 summit in June 2012. First woman President of Ireland Mary Robinson was elected Irish President in 1990 and served for seven years as a principled and transformative leader who continued to fight for equality and women’s rights throughout her time in office. A firm believer in dialogue and reconciliation, she broke taboos by being the first Irish head of state to make official visits to Britain, as well as regularly visiting Northern Ireland. She was the first head of state to visit Somalia following the crisis there in 1992, and brought global media attention to the suffering of Rwandans as the first Head of State to visit the country just after the 1994 genocide. Human rights champion As UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997-2002), Mary Robinson integrated human rights into the United Nations system and became renowned as an outspoken voice dedicated to investigating and exposing human rights abuses across the world. Mary Robinson founded Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative, which aimed to put human rights standards at the heart of global governance and to ensure that the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable are addressed on the global stage. As an academic, legislator and barrister, Mary Robinson has always sought to use law as an instrument for social change, arguing landmark cases before the European Court of Human Rights as well as in the Irish courts and the European Court in Luxembourg. A committed European, she also served on expert European Community and Irish parliamentary committees. In 1988 Mary Robinson and her husband founded the Irish Centre for European Law at Trinity College, the University of Dublin. Ten years later she was elected Chancellor of the University. Tackling global issues Mary Robinson heads the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice, a centre for education and advocacy on sustainable and people-centred development in the world’s poorest communities. She co-founded the Council of Women World Leaders, a network that mobilises women leaders at the highest levels to promote democracy and gender equality. She is a member of the Club of Madrid, a group of global leaders working on governance and conflict issues. She is also: Honorary President of Oxfam International Former President of the International Commission of Jurists Board Member of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation Board Member of the European Climate Foundation Mary Robinson served as the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for the Great Lakes region of Africa from 2013-2014, stepping down in July 2014 to take up the post of Special Envoy for Climate Change.