Adolfo Pérez Esquivel

Adolfo Pérez Esquivel María (* November 26, 1931 in Buenos Aires ) is an Argentine sculptor, architect and civil rights. In 1980 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize because of its oriented to Mahatma Gandhi nonviolent commitment to human rights. In 1987 he was president of the International League for the Rights and Liberation of People. He is a member of the Patronage Committee of the International Coalition for the Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World (2001-2010).

Life and work

Early years and artistic creation

Adolfo Pérez Esquivel was born in 1931 in Buenos Aires, Argentina; his father was from Spain and was a fisherman. He attended a private school and after high school began with a study of architecture at the School of Art in Buenos Aires. In 1956 he finished his studies with a diploma. He worked subsequently as a sculptor and taught until 1974 as a professor architecture at several universities. As a sculptor, he won the Premio de la Nación Escultura one of the most important cultural prices in the country. With its 1966 created work Templo del Sol he tried pre-Columbian art features to incorporate into his art, next put the maternity one of his central themes dar.

Social use

Adolfo Pérez Esquivel in 1968 was at a conference of all Latin American human rights groups of the founders of the organization Servicio Paz y Justicia ( Peace and Justice Service ) as an umbrella organization for these organizations. This was a response to the political and social conditions in Argentina under the rule of the dictator Juan Carlos Onganía, which were accompanied by an impoverishment of a wide segment of the population and government reprisals.

In 1973 he founded the newspaper Paz y Justicia as a monthly magazine and organ for the Latin American human rights movement. In 1974 he gave up his professor job and devoted himself entirely to the work in the organization and coordination of groups in Latin America. In that year he was also elected Secretary General of the organization, he focused on the promotion of education of the poor and the self-help. In 1974 he also started a campaign for land- seekers Indigenous. In 1975 he traveled to Paraguay, and supported the establishing itself there Bauer League in their fight against government attacks.

Adolfo Pérez Esquivel 1976 toured Europe and the U.S., trying to promote the goals and efforts of his organization there. In the year the Argentine President Isabel Peron was overthrown by a military coup and replaced by General Jorge Rafael Videla. In the following military dictatorship freedom of the press was restricted and suppressed criticism in the country by torture, abduction and "disappearance" of 30,000 people. Adolfo Pérez Esquivel 1977 also was arrested and imprisoned and tortured for 14 months. During this time he was cared for by Amnesty International. In 1978, he was - not least thanks to the successful amnesty campaign - released, but made ​​for a further nine months under house arrest. Only in 1980 he was able to become active again. When he received the Nobel Peace Prize this year, he was surprised, and also internationally, this decision came as a surprise.

After the invasion of Argentine troops on the Falkland Islands ( Islas Malvinas) and the subsequent defeat in the Falklands War, the military government was weakened under Leopoldo Galtieri also given the parlous economic situation of the country so that his military successor as president, Reynaldo Bignone convened as a way of democratic elections made, from which emerged as President Raul Alfonsin of Argentina in free elections. The members of the military junta in 1985 were sentenced to prison terms, but they were already abolished in 1989/90 by the use of the pardon law under President Carlos Menem. Thus, the de facto impunity is changed during the military dictatorship to a legalized impunity under the democratic government.

Adolfo Pérez Esquivel 1987 he was appointed President of the International League for the Rights and Liberation of People. Alongside he teaches at the Universidad de Buenos Aires at the Faculty of Social Sciences ( Facultad de Ciencias Sociales ). He received an honorary doctorate from St. Joseph University in Philadelphia. His prize money he spent mainly for the support of his organization for Indigenous in the country and for homeless families.

Adolfo Pérez Esquivel Since 2004 is member of the jury of the Nuremberg International Human Rights Award.

As a great friend of the Children's Fund and social project " Fundação para Todos Vida - ABAI " in Mandirituba ( southern Brazil ) and its founder Marianne Spiller Adolfo Pérez Esquivel Hadorn has participated in the anniversary event marking the 30th anniversary of the organization in 2010. He gave the organization a self- painted picture, which symbolizes the Mãe Terra (Mother Earth) and points to the eco- spiritual dimension, which is an important aspect of the work - is " Fundação para Todos ABAI Vida ". This is the Swiss association " ABAI friends - Vida Para Todos " is supported financially and morally.

Together with the two Nobel Peace Prize laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Mairead Corrigan, he wrote in November 2012 an open letter in which Bradley Manning " did a brave informant, the crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq uncovered " is called. Lance Corporal of the U.S. armed forces deserve grace instead of law enforcement wrote the three Nobel Peace Prize in the letter published in the journal " The Nation " on December 3, 2012.