Release date: Oct. 11, 2002
Contact: Nancy Seideman, Director, University Media Relations,
at 404-727-0640 or nseidem@emory.edu

Jimmy Carter Wins Nobel Peace Prize

Former President Jimmy Carter, a member of the faculty at Emory University, has won the Nobel Peace Prize "for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development."

In making the announcement, the Nobel Committee cited Carter's work with the Emory-affiliated Carter Center, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.

In a statement from his home in Plains, Ga., Carter said: "I am deeply grateful for this honor. I want to thank the Nobel Committee and the many people at The Carter Center who have worked side-by-side with me and my wife, Rosalynn, to promote peace and human rights.

"People everywhere share the same dream of a caring international community that prevents war and oppression," Carter said. "During the past two decades, as Rosalynn and I traveled around the world for the work of our center, my concept of human rights has grown to include not only the rights to live in peace, but also to adequate health care, shelter, food and to economic opportunity.

"I hope this award reflects a universal acceptance and even embrace of this broad-based concept of human rights," Carter said. "This honor serves as an inspiration not only to us but also to suffering people around the world, and I accept it on their behalf."

Carter, 39th President of the United States, came to Emory 20 years ago as University Distinguished Professor and head of The Carter Center. In 1986, The Carter Center moved into facilities near the Emory campus at the new Carter Presidential Center, which includes the Jimmy Carter Library. Carter is often a visiting lecturer in a variety of Emory classes.

"On behalf of everyone at Emory, where President Carter has served for many years as a member of the faculty, we are immensely proud that the Nobel Peace Prize has gone to this messenger and apostle of peace and understanding," said Emory President William M. Chace. "We have watched for years as this native son of Georgia has, since his presidency, advanced, in many different ways, a vision of healthy understanding among the nations and the people of the world.

"When he goes forth from The Carter Center and from this campus to wage peace," said Chace, "he does so because his experiences have taught him that war is not necessarily the best answer to conflict, but rational discussion and respect for others can be. He served his country well as president but he is now being recognized for all that he has so superbly done since that presidency."

The Carter Center operates in partnership with Emory as a separately chartered extension of the university. The center is independently governed by a board of trustees that includes President Chace. Emory ties with the center have remained strong throughout its history. Here are some of them:

• Carter Center Fellows: The Carter Center programs are directed by resident experts or fellows, many of whom are Emory faculty members. The fellows design and implement activities in cooperation with President and Mrs. Carter, networks of world leaders, other nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and partners in the United States and abroad.

• Carter Center Internship Program: More than 120 undergraduate and graduate students, a majority of them Emory students, work as interns with the center’s world-wide health and peace programs for academic credit or practical experience each year.

• Carter Center Faculty Liaison Program: Emory faculty serve as liaisons to each of the center’s core programs. At the beginning of fall semester, liaisons meet with the director of the program with which they will be working to be briefed on the program's status. The two parties discuss how the liaison's expertise might lend itself to furthering program efforts.

• Past affiliations also have included jointly taught undergraduate courses on world affairs by Carter Center staff and Emory faculty.

The text of the Nobel announcement can be found on the Nobel Foundation's Web site at: www.nobel.se/peach/laureates/2002/press.html.

For more information on Carter's work, visit The Carter Center Web site.

Read Emory Report for further coverage on Carter winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

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