• Marc Dullaert, a successful businessman from Europe, witnesses a death in Africa and decides that he can no longer be a spectator to the world’s suffering.

• Moved by a 14-year-old’s campaign to stop child labor, he wonders why a child cannot win the Nobel Peace Prize.

•  A meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev results in the establishment of a peace price for children.

• Children make up half the world’s population, yet are seen as second class citizens. Dullaert has shown how winners of the Children’s Peace Prize can influence key adult change makers and global institutions of influence.

One morning on the border of Sierra Leone I was woken by an awful sound. It sounded like an animal in distress. I stepped outside and saw a mother from a nearby refugee camp holding her child that had passed away. I was filming documentaries for my television production company and our vehicle had broken down the day before, resulting in us sleeping on the passenger seats. It was an incident that was to change my life forever. Seeing that mother holding her dead child was like being struck by lightning and I knew that I had to do something. I phoned my wife as soon as I got a signal, she designed a logo and I came up with a name: KidsRights. We started with a small project to benefit Aids orphans in South Africa and then steadily added more. It resulted in me selling my business, a large production company that produced shows for 12 European countries, to enable me to focus entirely on building KidsRights.

In 2004 the Children’s Peace Prize was born. I watched the announcement of the new Nobel Peace Prize winner on the evening news one evening and shortly afterwards a documentary on an 11-year-old boy called Iqbal Masih from Pakistan. Masih had organised a protest rally with thousands of children to protest against working conditions within the tapestry industry, basically children working in sweat shops. I was so impressed that I asked myself, “Why can’t a child win the Nobel Peace Prize?” 

Chaeli Mycroft of South Africa won for her work to establish rights for children with disabilities. Behind her is fellow winner Malala Yousafzai.

I made contact with the Oslo Nobel Peace Prize Committee, who were very kind but said, “Sorry Mr. Dullaert our statutes are more than 100 years old and we will not change them. The Nobel Peace Prize is not for children.”

Then I heard about the yearly gathering of Nobel Peace Prize winners, chaired by the former president of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev. I managed to secure a ten-minute meeting and met him at the Gorbachev Foundation offices in Moscow.

I tried to explain to him my idea of an international children’s peace prize, but despite being friendly, he didn’t speak English and the translator wasn’t helping much either. Gorbachev sat looking at me unblinking. I was getting nowhere. Suddenly, in desperation, I asked, “Mr. Gorbachev, do you have grandchildren and do you think you could learn something from them?” It was an icebreaker. He suddenly became emotional and started talking about his daughter and grandchildren. After my short interview, I was sent outside to wait for his answer – 45 minutes in a cold corridor, like a punished school child. I was eventually summoned back into his office and Gorbachev said, “Yes, let’s do this.”

Marc Dullaert founded the first international peace prize for children.

The first International Children’s Peace Prize was launched at the 2005 peace summit in Rome and the first winner was South African Nkosi Johnson for his fight for the rights of children with HIV/AIDS. It was awarded to him posthumously as he had died of HIV/AIDS himself four years earlier at the age of 12. Ten years later, we now reach more than 1 billion people around the world when we acknowledge a child with a peace prize. The statuette they receive literally depicts a child moving the world because I strongly believe that children can be change makers. Sure, children are vulnerable, but they also harbor enormous strengths.

Winner Mayra Avellar Neves of Brazil, with founder Marc Dullaert (left) and Bono.

The Children’s Peace Prize provides a platform for children to voice their opinions and to inspire other children to bring about change. It can generate enormous impact. For example, Om Prakash Gurjar won his peace prize for freeing 500 children from slavery in India. He appeared on BBC news and when Gordon Brown, then U.K. minister of finance, visited India shortly after he requested a meeting. He was so impressed with Gurjar that he gave the Indian government £200 million to start eradicating child slavery and illiteracy. This demonstrates the power of a 14-year-old. After awarding the peace prize each year we can see the positive effects rippling out – it’s like throwing a stone into water.

However, exposure can also have a downside. In 2011 we got a handwritten letter from a schoolteacher in Pakistan, telling us about the remarkable story of a girl called Malala Yousafzai. She had stubbornly refused to stop her schooling, and despite being threatened by the Taliban, had continued advocating for girls education in a very public and courageous way. We wanted to award Malala the Children’s Peace Prize but were concerned for her safety, so we decided to nominate her instead – giving the prize that year to Chaeli Mycroft, a girl with a disability from South Africa.

The president of Pakistan was disappointed and he announced a few days later a National Peace Prize for Pakistan. It was awarded to Malala and she was thrust into the international limelight. The Taliban shot her a few months later. We could never have imagined that nominating her for a peace prize would trigger these series of events. The irony is that this tragic event led to her getting even wider exposure. She received the International Children’s Peace Prize in 2013 after all, and one year later received the renowned Nobel Peace Prize.

Om Prakash won the peace prize for combating child labor and liberating child slaves in India.

What’s become clear is that children who win the peace prize can positively influence key adult change-makers. In 2007, The Elders was formed – a group of international leaders working together for peace and human rights. We decided to create the youth equivalent – The Youngsters. One of our winners, Thandiwe Chama has addressed the United Nations on the upcoming Sustainable Development Goals. Baruani Ndume from Tanzania, has addressed world leaders on what it’s like to be a child refugee and victim of war. Our winners have become ambassadors for good.

Om Prakash receives his International Children’s Peace Prize from Nobel Peace Laureate FW de Klerk.

Children make up more than half the world’s population and are citizens of countries, despite being treated like second-class citizens. Many leaders and politicians pay lip service to children and jump at opportunities to have pictures taken with them, but they don’t take the time to listen to them. I’m not saying that young people know more than adults, just that they have a different view of the world. The least we can do is consult them when making laws or policies that directly affect them. One of my biggest eye-openers has been to see this happening more in Asia and Africa than in Europe – where it’s still very difficult to find real participation by children.

But, while children are capable of tackling tough social challenges and showing adults new ways of seeing the world, we still need to nurture an important ingredient of childhood – love. At one of our projects in India I once spoke to a boy who’d been freed from slavery. The kids were given a daily cooked meal and I said he must be very happy with that. He looked at me and said: “Of course I’m happy with one warm meal, but it’s more important to know that somebody cares for me.”

• Raised in one of the most troubled countries in Africa a woman rises to become the world’s first black woman president at age 67.

• Personal struggles helped shape her attitude to war and violence, that she used to build a country torn apart by civil war.

• An understanding of history and gender discrimination taught her that women must not be held back and insists they form part of any conflict resolution process.

• In accepting a Nobel Peace Prize she emphasizes that weapons cannot kill by themselves – people do.

Born into poverty in Africa, getting married at 17 to an abusive husband, facing discrimination as a woman, imprisoned and being forced into exile, separated from your children – these things would test the will of the toughest leader. Yet this is what happened to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and despite insurmountable odds, she is now the world’s first elected black female president and Africa’s first elected female head of state. Elected in 2006, Sirleaf brought stability to Liberia, a volatile country that had seen two civil wars over a period of fourteen years. As if that wasn’t enough, she also added a Nobel Peace Prize to her long list of accolades in 2011.

Her popular title of the “Iron Lady” of Africa is a pleasant irony as her Nobel Peace Prize was awarded for her non-violent struggle to ensure the safety of women and for insisting that women have full participation in the peace-building process. Sirleaf shared her Nobel Prize with fellow Liberian Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman of Yemen for realising the great potential for democracy and peace that women can bring. War may traditionally be men’s work, but Sirleaf insists that women have a say in cleaning up the mess and ensuring that it won’t happen again. Her fight against corruption and violence could also be the reason she was voted back as president for a second term in 2011 and why the IMF and donor countries agreed to write off $4.6 billion of Liberia’s debt, based on her sound economic policies, freeing up funds to build new infrastructure.

Sirleaf was born with Americo-Liberian roots and German ancestry and she has qualifications and work experience from American institutions the World Bank, Citibank and the UN Development Programme. Her diverse cultural identity, exposure to global economic infrastructure and big picture thinking have all resulted in a leader who understands that diversity can actually keep things together, rather than tear things apart.

Sirleaf describes Liberia as, “A wonderful, beautiful, mixed-up country struggling to find itself.” The complications stretch back to 1847 when Liberia declared itself a nation, created by freed American slaves shipped back to Africa. They retained the cultures and traditions of the American South and even created a flag that mimics closely the American flag. “The settlers of modern-day Liberia decided they would plant their feet in Africa but keep their faces turned squarely toward the United States,” says Sirleaf. “This would trigger a profound alienation that led to a deeply cleaved society, and ultimately set the stage for the terror and bloodshed to come.”

The 1989-1996 Liberian civil war, one of Africa’s bloodiest, claimed the lives of more than 200,000 Liberians and further displaced a million others into refugee camps in neighboring countries. Entire villages were emptied as people fled. Child soldiers committed atrocities, raping and murdering people of all ages, including their parents. The war claimed the lives of one out of every 17 people in the country.

The seeds of the conflict can be traced back to leaders who either identified themselves with an Americo-Liberian identity or with ethnic, tribal sentiments. It’s a stark reminder of how political decisions and discrimination from generations ago can suddenly appear to haunt future generations at any time. 

One hundred and fifty eight years later it took a single woman to heal the wounds. Sirleaf refused to accept the limitations of her nation, or her gender, and refused to give up her beliefs despite being jailed and threatened by brutal dictators. She worked for, and ruffled the feathers, of every president she worked for in Liberia over a span of nearly 40 years, until she herself at age 67 became the first woman to be elected president of an African nation.

From left: Yemeni activist Tawakkul Karman, Liberian ‘peace warrior’ Leymah Gbowee and Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf jointly won the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize.

Many people are unaware that Alfred Nobel, after which the Peace Prize is named, was the inventor of dynamite. He was inspired to leaving his vast fortune to the prize that bears his name after a newspaper incorrectly reported his death with the headline: “Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday.” It was actually Nobel’s brother that had died, but from that moment he decided his legacy was going to be about peace and human advancement. Sirleaf accepted her Nobel Peace Prize by recounting this story and adding,” Alfred Nobel’s dynamite did not kill people. People kill people, whether it’s with a knife, machete, handgun, rifle, machine gun or explosive device packed with dynamite.”

She is also dismissive of those that assume military weapons are the only devices on which war can be blamed. “We must not forget that some of the most heinous crimes in war have been committed without explosives. Too often brute force has sufficed,” she says. “Rape remains one of the tested and most enduring weapons of war. But there have always been other men, and perhaps even more women, who have committed themselves to the cause of peace,” Sirleaf explains. “These are the people Alfred Nobel wanted to celebrate and have others emulate.”

In her inaugural speech Sirleaf said: “Our recent history teaches us that violence diminishes our nation and ourselves, not just within our borders, but more importantly in our dealings with other nations and people.” Conflict is never confined to a geographical area, especially in the age of globalization, and Sirleaf knows that a true leader sees themselves as a global citizen with a responsibility beyond their own citizens.

Sirleaf’s presidency firmly establishes the importance of women leaders on the world stage and her unique position as a woman with both African and Western roots – genealogically, geographically, and intellectually – signals a new kind of 21st century leadership that has broken gender stereotypes and challenged the idea that historical animosities cannot be healed.

She has also stressed that the tolerance of other viewpoints is crucial for the creation of peace, even when people disagree strongly with those around them. “Our shared values are more important than our individual interests,” she says, explaining how the bigger picture should always be kept in mind before pulling a trigger.

A unique collaboration between luxury brands and the world’s greatest sporting legends has helped young people around the world overcome challenging social issues such as poverty, homelessness, war, violence, drug abuse, discrimination and AIDS.

As Michael Johnson settled into the starting blocks at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 to set a new world record for the 200 meters, he could never have imagined jogging playfully alongside kids in Kenya a few years later, helping raise self-esteem among young people in one of Africa’s largest slums. When Nawal El Moutawakel crossed the finish line at the 1984 Los Angeles Games and became the first Moroccan, African and Muslim woman to win an Olympic gold medal, she had no idea that she’d one day be leading 30,000 Muslim girls on an annual 10 km fun run around Casablanca, and pioneering sport among women in Moroccan society.

Britain’s greatest ever Paralympic athlete, Tani Grey-Thompson, six-time winner of the London Wheelchair marathon, despite a debilitating back disease that’s confined her to a wheelchair, could never have guessed that she’d find herself in the West Bank in Gaza one day, inspiring Israeli and Palestinian kids to work together through a basketball match. Johnson, El Moutawakel and Grey-Thompson form part of a unique association of 46 of the world’s greatest living sporting legends, The Laureus Academy, that embraces the principle of using sport to help bring positive change to disempowered communities.

They offer their time to support the work of the Laureus Foundation, by visiting over 140 projects around the world, all utilizing sport to turn kids away from the negative influences in society, and helping them realize their true potential. Other sporting greats who have aligned themselves with the Laureus include, Boris Becker, Jack Nicklaus, Hugo Porta, Kapil Dev, Sebastian Coe, Monica Seles, Tony Hawk and Dan Marino.

This grassroots, life-changing work, is offset by a glittering sports awards ceremony, held each year in a different city, that sees the Academy members mingle with top sportspeople, presidents and royalty, to recognize sporting excellence. Commonly referred to as the “Oscars of sport,” the award ceremony was conceived as a way of bringing together the biggest names in sport and raising awareness around sport as a catalyst for change.

While big sporting celebrities walk away with solid gold and silver trophies produced by Cartier, after acceptance speeches for categories such as Breakthrough of The Year and Spirit of Sport Award, they are typically found a few months later in the slums of India or surveying the aftermath of a Tsunami in Indonesia, offering their expertise to rebuild communities. Significant global brands have come onboard as sponsors to ensure the work is maintained, and in return, their brand travels the world and associates itself with top sports personalities and events.

One of the global partners, luxury Swiss watch manufacturer IWC Schaffhausen, has even developed a special, limited edition watch for the benefit of the foundation, featuring the engraved artwork of a winner from one of the global Laureus projects. CEO of IWC Schaffhausen, Georges Kern, who has personally driven the Swiss watch manufacturer’s social responsibility program, says: “The privileged people on this planet – and we are among them – must do something to help those who are socially, physically or economically disadvantaged.

Through sport, Laureus gives people fresh hope and promotes social skills such as respect for opponents, recognition of rules, fair play and teamwork.” Other sponsors and patrons, such as Mercedes-Benz, Richemont, Daimler and the cities that play host to the yearly awards, benefit from huge global exposure by participating in A-list events and through their association with household names in sport.

From a logo on a T-shirt in Africa to major television coverage at a Formula One event, sponsors are perfectly positioned to do well by doing good. “Politicians love movie stars, and movie stars love sportspeople,” says Edwin Moses, Chairman of the Laureus World Sports Academy. “We’re at the top of the influence chain, and because our physical skills are not easily replicated, we command huge respect and can influence lives.”

Tennis legend Martina Navratilova, an active Academy member, has seen the benefits of this unique business model firsthand: “We have raised over $100 million since 2001 and now there are over 120 projects globally. Over 1.5 million kids have been helped in a positive way,” she says.

The Laureus story is a heady mix of corporate sponsorship, celebrity sport and the will to succeed in some of the most devastated and impoverished parts of the planet. Projects have saved kids from gangs in Sao Paulo, reformed child soldiers in Sierra Leone, given hope to special needs kids in Shanghai and helped clear mines in Cambodia. It embodies something every sportsperson who has ever achieved greatness can attest to – that winning comes through a combination of self discipline and teamwork – mirroring the same qualities needed to win in life. It was the lack of a formal platform to honor this greatness that sparked the idea for Laureus in the first place. The year 2000 dawned with a mixture of hope and expectation as the world prepared for the new Millennium.

The United Nations declared 2000 to be the International Year for the Culture of Peace, and global warming was something most people were hardly aware of. Indeed, Al Gore was a US Presidential candidate that year, and had yet to move on to become the maker of the award-winning ecological wake-up film An Inconvenient Truth. As ever, sport was full of promise. The Millennium Olympic Games were just around the corner in Sydney, and indeed proved to be one of the most successful ever. And something else significant was stirring: an idea which was to prove radical and innovative, and, once it became reality, a beacon of hope for disadvantaged young people.

The seed of the idea that grew to become Laureus was first planted several years before the Millennium by Johann Rupert, Executive Chairman of luxury goods company Richemont. A noted sports enthusiast, Rupert was at a dinner with friends one evening and mused over the fact that there was no Nobel Prize or Oscars-style awards for sport.

Rupert’s views on the power of sport were fundamentally influenced by the crucial role that the 1995 Rugby World Cup played in the reconciliation of the different communities in South Africa, and in 1998 he found a kindred spirit in Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of German automotive giant Daimler, like Richemont, another blue chip company with a long commitment to sport. Two years later, the Laureus World Sports Academy was created, with 30 of the greatest living sports legends named as founder members.

On May 25, 2000, the majority of the Academy members gathered in Monaco for the very first Laureus World Sports Awards. It was an impressive collection of sporting legends, but it is fair to say that the biggest name was a huge surprise all round, as the door to the Academy meeting room opened and in walked President Nelson Mandela. It was in Monaco that Mandela, who was to become the Patron of Laureus, made the visionary speech which has become the philosophy of Laureus and the driving force that has shaped its work for the last 13 years.

His speech has become the dictum not only for Laureus, but for the whole sport for good movement. He said: “Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope, where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than governments in breaking down racial barriers.

It laughs in the face of all types of discrimination.” With much conflict in the world based on ignorance or fear of other cultures, breaking down this discrimination could be seen as a crucial part of creating prosperity for future generations. Perhaps the power of sport can best be illustrated by an encounter Rupert once had with a friend of his.

“Some 30 years ago, while living in New York City, I had a black friend who was a true sports superstar,” says Rupert. “He was constantly mobbed for autographs. I noticed that he took extra care giving signed posters to white kids. I asked him about the apparent favoritism. His answer: “Johann, if a white kid has my poster in his bedroom, he can hardly discriminate against the black kid in his class.”