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Sydney Peace Prize

Australia's International Prize for Peace

Every day, remarkable people around the world stand up to prove that peace is possible. When we celebrate and support solutions that demand justice for everyone, encourage empathy, and advocate nonviolence, we can set a new agenda.

Some Sydney Peace Prize recipients help families overcome poverty, courageously champion the rights of Indigenous peoples, or fight racial oppression. Others reconcile people and nations, take on the powers that destroy the earth we all depend on, or promote nonviolence and demand aggressors put down their weapons.

Sydney Peace Prize recipients are some of the world’s most effective peacemakers. They champion solutions to the most urgent global challenges and inspire us to be the change we want to see. The Prize brings the community together to recognise these extraordinary achievements. It starts vital public debate and creates a platform to ensure their voices are heard.

By sharing their remarkable stories of vision and courage, the Sydney Peace Prize reminds us that a peaceful, equitable and just world is possible.

2023
2023 Nazanin Boniadi
2023 Nazanin Boniadi

…despots fear nothing more than a free and politically active woman.

2022
2021-22 Uluru Statement from the Heart
2021-22 Uluru Statement from the Heart

The Uluru Statement from the Heart is an invitation to the Australian people to walk with First Nations people to create a better future.

2019
2019 The Me Too movement
2019 The Me Too movement

Every human being has the right to walk through this life with their full humanity in tact. Part of the work of the Me Too movement is the restoration of that humanity.

2018
2018 Professor Joseph Stiglitz
2018 Professor Joseph Stiglitz

Inequality is created. We know the economic and social policies with which we can build a better world. The challenge today is our politics.

2017
2017 Black Lives Matter
2017 Black Lives Matter

Black Lives Matter is our call to action. It is a tool to reimagine a world where Black people are free to exist, free to live, and a tool for our allies to show up for us.

2016
2016 Naomi Klein
2016 Naomi Klein

What if confronting the climate crisis is the best chance we’re ever going to get to build a better world?

2015
2015 Dr George Gittoes AM
2015 Dr George Gittoes AM

I’d rather send an army of musicians, artists, painters and communicators, than battalions of soldiers with their guns

2014
2014 Julian Burnside AO QC
2014 Julian Burnside AO QC

Some of us remember how things once were, some of us see how things could be

2013
2013 Dr Cynthia Maung
2013 Dr Cynthia Maung

For communities to start to heal and move towards peace after decades of conflict and oppression, civil society must be strong

2012
2012 Senator Sekai Holland
2012 Senator Sekai Holland

Give peace a chance but keep the pressure on

2011
2011 Professor Noam Chomsky
2011 Professor Noam Chomsky

Changes and progress very rarely are gifts from above. They come out of struggles from below

2010
2010 Dr Vandana Shiva
2010 Dr Vandana Shiva

You are not Atlas carrying the world on your shoulder. It is good to remember that the planet is carrying you

2009
2009 John Pilger
2009 John Pilger

Peace is only possible with justice and with information that gives us the power to act justly

2008
2008 Patrick Dodson
2008 Patrick Dodson

Leadership is an elusive concept, hard to describe and impossible to prescribe. It is more evident in its absence, so that when leadership is needed, its lack is sorely felt

2007
2007 Hans Blix
2007 Hans Blix

Disarmament by war and democracy by occupation are difficult prospects

2006
2006 Irene Khan
2006 Irene Khan

There can be no peace without justice and respect for human rights

2005
2005 Olara Otunnu
2005 Olara Otunnu

The time has come to make the protection of all our children a common cause that can unite us across our political orientation, religious affiliation and cultural traditions

2004
2004 Arundhati Roy
2004 Arundhati Roy

Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing

2003
2003 Dr Hanan Ashrawi
2003 Dr Hanan Ashrawi

We cannot rely upon the silenced to tell us they are suffering

2002
2002 Mary Robinson
2002 Mary Robinson

Human rights are inscribed in the hearts of people, they were there long before lawmakers drafted their first proclamation

2001
2001 Sir William Deane AC KBE
2001 Sir William Deane AC KBE

Where there is no room for national pride, or national shame, about the past, there can be no national soul

2000
2000 Xanana Gusmão
2000 Xanana Gusmão

Being patient does not mean being silent

1999
1999 Archbishop Desmond Tutu
1999 Archbishop Desmond Tutu

There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in

1998
1998 Professor Muhammad Yunus
1998 Professor Muhammad Yunus

Poverty is the absence of all human rights. To build stable peace we must find ways to provide opportunities for people to live decent lives