President Martti Ahtisaari receives Nobel Peace Prize
Crisis Management Initiative
Press release
10 October, 2008
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has today chosen the founder and Chairman of the Crisis Management Initiative (CMI), President Martti Ahtisaari as the laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize 2008.
News of the award reached President Ahtisaari, who has championed for peace for over four decades, today just after 11.30 am. A statement by President Ahtisaari is expected in the afternoon and CMI will host a press conference later today in Helsinki, Finland. The exact time and place for the press conference will be announced soon.
Martti Ahtisaari was elected President of the Republic of Finland in February 1994. He held office from the 1st of March 1994 to the 29th of February 2000. Upon leaving office, President Ahtisaari founded the Crisis Management Initiative, where he is the Chairman of the Board. In this capacity he facilitated the peace process between the Government of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement in 2005. This process lead to the signing of a peace treaty which ended the three decade-long war in Aceh.
His post-presidential activities have also included inspection of the IRA's arms' dumps with fellow inspector Cyril Ramaphosa (2000), the drafting of a report on the human rights and political situation in Austria as a member of a group of "three wise men" (2000), chairing an independent panel on the security and safety of UN personnel in Iraq (2003), appointments as Personal Envoy of the OSCE CiO for Central Asia (2003-2004) and UN Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa (2003-2005).
Mr. Ahtisaari is a member of Independent Commission on Turkey that examines the challenges and opportunities presented by Turkey's possible membership in the European Union (2004 - ). In 2007 President Ahtisaari became a member of an independent Consultative Group on the Past seeking a consensus in Northern Ireland on how to best deal with the legacy of the past.
Between 14 November 2005 and 29 February 2008, President Ahtisaari acted as the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for the future status process for Kosovo.
President Ahtisaari is active in numerous non-governmental and non-profit organisations. He was born on 23 June 1937, is married and has a son.
Contacts at CMI: Executive Director Mr. Kalle Liesinen, Special Assistant Mrs. Riikka Marjamäki or Office Manager Mr. Mikko Autti, tel. +358 9 424 2810