Ambassador Pierre Schori  MaximsNews Columnist

Amb.PierreSchori@MaximsNews.com

        Anna Politkovskaya, Recognized journalist and author with considerable involvement in the Chechnyan issue, inter alia. Noted for her courage and strength when reporting in difficult and dangerous circumstances. 

        Sergej Kovaljov, dissident and symbol of human rights.  Member of the Duma 1993-2003. 

         Ljudmila Aleksejeva, advocate of human rights in the Soviet Union and Russia. Respected at all levels as Chairman of the Russian Helsingfors Committee. (Not Pictured.)

THE OLOF PALME PRIZE 2004 to three Russian advocates of human rights

         UNITED NATIONS --  20 January 2005 / www.MaximsNews.com  / The Olof Palme Prize 2004 is awarded to three Russian advocates of human rights:

Ljudmila Aleksejeva, advocate of human rights in the Soviet Union and Russia. 

Respected at all levels as Chairman of the Russian Helsingfors Committee. 

Member of the President's Commission on Human Rights since 2002. Chairman of the International Helsinki Federation between 1998 - November 2004.

Chairman of the Moscow Helsinki Group since 1996.

Well known for her efforts to strengthen civilian society in Russia.

Sergej Kovaljov, dissident and symbol of human rights.

Member of the Duma 1993-2003. 

Chairman of the President's Commission on Human Rights 1993-1996. 

Ombudsman for Human Rights under the President 1994-1995. 

One of the strongest critics of the first so-called war in Chechnya. 

Recipient of the Council of Europe award for human rights.

Anna Politkovskaya, Recognized journalist and author with considerable involvement in the Chechnyan issue, inter alia. 

Noted for her courage and strength when reporting in difficult and dangerous circumstances. 

She has received a number of international honours, including the Courage in Journalism Award from the International Women's Media Foundation. 

Respect for human rights in Russia is of major importance for safety and stability in the rest of the world. 

The three prize winners are all influential symbols of the long battle for human rights in Russia. 

With their great courage, often matched with considerable personal sacrifice, risk-taking and dogged insistence in never compromising the fundamental ideals of strengthening free speech and a free press, they thereby represent those who have influenced and promoted democratic development in the country. 

The Olof Palme Prize is awarded annually for an outstanding achievement chosen by the Fund's Board.

The prize consists of a diploma and 50.000 US dollars to be shared between the prize winners. A prize ceremony will be held in Stockholm, January 28th , 2005. 

For comments and more information about the Prize, please contact the Fund's Chairman Pierre Schori on telephone: +46 709 58 38 38 (until January 14), +1 646 732 35 89 (from January 15), or contact the office at+ 46 8 677 57 90 or e-mail palmefonden@palmecenter.se.

Olof Palme was Prime Minister in Sweden between the years 1969-1976 and 1982-1986. 

He was instrumental in the democratisation of education and in the development of the Swedish social welfare system. 

His international interest and commitment made him known and esteemed both in Sweden and abroad. 

He actively supported the dissident movement during the communist dictatorships in Eastern Europe, the resistance against dictatorships in Greece, Spain, Portugal and Chile as well as against the apartheid system in South Africa, and was one of the first to oppose the wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan. 

He was assassinated in 1986.

"His visions knew no national boundaries" said Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, the then UN Secretary General, at the funeral of Olof Palme in Stockholm on the 15th of March 1986. 

The Olof Palme Memorial Fund was established by Olof Palme's family and by the Social Democratic Party to honour Olof Palme's memory. 

The Fund's purpose is, through scholarships and grants, to give opportunities to young people for international exchange and for studies of peace and disarmament, to support work against racism and hostility toward immigrants and to foster in other ways work for international understanding and common security. 


      Previous receivers of the Olof Palme Prize are: 

1987 Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa. 

1988 Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, UN Secretary General. 

1989 Václav Havel, Czechoslovakia. 

1990 S.O.S. Racisme and Harlem Désir, France, 

1991 Amnesty International. 

1992 Arzu Abdullayeva, Armenia, and Anahit Bayandour, Azerbajdzjan. 

1993 Students for Sarajevo. 

1994 Wei Jingsheng, China. 

1995 Fatah Youth, Labour Young Leadership and Peace Now. 

1996 Casa Alianza, Central America, under the leadership of Bruce Harris. 

1997 Salima Ghezali, Algeria. 

1998 Independent Media in Former Yugoslavia, represented by Veran Mati*, Serbia, Senad Pe*anin, Bosnia and Viktor Ivan*i*, Croatia. 

1999 Swedish anti-racists, Kurdo Baksi, Björn Fries and the Parent Group in Klippan, Sweden. 

2000 Bryan Stevenson, Director of Equal Justice Inititative (EJI), USA. 

2001 Fazle Hasan Abed, Bangladesh, founder of BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee). 

2002 Hanan Ashrawi, Palestine.

2003 Hans Blix, Sweden. 


For further information please visit: www.palmefonden.se

FOR THE OLOF PALME MEMORIAL FUND 
Pierre Schori 
Chairman 

Ambassador Pierre Schori's Columns in MaximsNews

THE OLOF PALME PRIZE 2004 to three Russian advocates of human rights 20 January 2005

Olof Palme Prize Winners Against the Death Penalty  18 November 2004

Wars and Elections Seen From My Classroom  27 October 2004

Europeans, Citing Concerns of Possible Irregularities, to Send Elections Observers to the U.S.     22 October 2004

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Ambassador Jean PIERRE Olov SCHORI

Amb.PierreSchori@MaximsNews.com 

Born in Norrköping, Sweden, in 1938.

His mother was Swedish and his father Swiss 

Married to Maud EDGREN-SCHORI,

M.A.S.W, Licentiate of Philosophy in Social Work, Stockholm University

Mr. Schori has three children

Education

1962                            Master of Arts, Modern Languages and Political Science, University of Lund

Professional Experiences

1965-1968                   Deputy International Secretary for the Social Democratic Party

1968-71                       International Secretary for the Social Democratic Party

1971-1972                   First Secretary, Ministry for Foreign Affairs

1973-1976                                                       Foreign Policy Advisor in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Olof Palme

1976-1982                   International Secretary for the Social Democratic Party

1982-1991                   Permanent Under-Secretary of State, Ministry for Foreign Affairs

1991-1994                   Member of Parliament, Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Spokesperson for the Social Democratic Party on Foreign Affairs

1994-1996                   Minister for International Development Co-operation and Deputy Foreign Minister for Co-operation with Central and Eastern Europe, including Russia and the Baltic States

1996-1999                   Minister for International Development Co-operation, Migration and Asylum Policy and Deputy Foreign Minister

1999-2000                   Member of European Parliament, leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Group and Spokesperson for the Socialist Group on Foreign Affairs, President of the Parliament ´s Committee for relations with Japan

2000-2004                   Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sweden to the United Nations 2004-                           

                                     Distinguished Visiting Professor, Adelphi University, New York

  Other Engagements and Commissions of Trust

1971-1973                   Editor of “Tiden”, the theoretical review of the Social Democratic Party

1973-1979                   Member of the Local School Authority in Lidingö

1979-1982                   Member of the Lidingö Cultural Board

1987-1989                   Member of the International Commission for Central American Recovery and Development (The Sanford Commission)

1989-1996                   Chairperson of the National Judo Federation, Black belt, 1st Dan, 1990

1996-                           Chairperson of the Olof Palme Memorial Fund

2000 and 2002                                                Head of the European Union Election Observation Mission in Zimbabwe

1999-2002                   Chairperson of the Swedish Institute in Alexandria, Egypt

2001- 2004                  Chair, United Nations Committee for Parliamentarians for

                         Global Action

2000-2004                                                        Member of the Board of the International Peace Academy, New York

Books and Publications

Latin Americans on Latin America, Stockholm, 1968

I orkanens öga (Central America -In the eye of the Hurricane), Stockholm 1981

El desafío europeo en Centroamérica, San José, Costa Rica, 1982

Dokument inifrån (Between Blocks and Bridges: Swedish Foreign Policy from Olof Palme to Post-Communism), Stockholm, 1992

Entre Escila y Caribdis: Olof Palme, la Guerra Fría y el Poscomunismo, Mexico, 1994

Mellan Maastricht och Sarajevo, (Europe between Maastricht and Sarajevo) Stockholm, 1994

The Impossible Neutrality. Southern Africa, Cape Town, 1994

Olof Palme – Reformisten utan gränser  (Reformer without Borders), 1996

Olof Palme - Reformista sin Fronteras, Barcelona 1997

Can the United Nations manage the new era? Stockholm, 1999

From Marshall to Post-Communism: A New Deal for Internationalism

First lecture of the Marshall Plan 50th Anniversary Distinguished Lecture Series at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., December 10, 1996

American Hegemony in the International Perspective. Lecture at the Summer Faculty Institute on World Security Affairs, Amherst College, June 11, 2002

Global challenges in the 21st century. Lecture at Adelphi University, Garden City, October 2002

The United Nations, Global Governance, and Global Citizenship after September 11

 Lecture at Adelphi University, Garden City, September 22, 2004

Languages

Swedish, English, French, Spanish and some German.