Hands of Peace Severine Desmarest Photographies

A renown Opera singer committed to humanitarian action, she founded the Barbara Hendricks Foundation for Peace and Reconciliation to defend the rights of refugees, facilitate reconciliation in conflict zones and strengthen peace. | Goodwill Ambassador for life of the HCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees).

Man of faith and action, in 1990 he created Akamasoa ("good friends", in Malagasy) to restore the dignity of the families living in inhumane conditions due to extreme poverty by giving them autonomy and the means to build their future.
In a quarter of a century, the association has helped more than 500,000 Madagascans, with 25,000 people living in the 18 villages they have constructed.

Khyentse Norbu also known as Dzongsar Khyentse Rimpotche is a Bhutanese Lama, screenwriter, director and writer born in 1961. He is the founder of “Lotus Outreach” a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring the education, health and safety of women and vulnerable children in developing countries.

Formany years committed to the fight against HIV and AIDS for more than 20 years, the actress Sharon Stone received the Peace Summit Award in 2013 in recognition of her humanitarian work. She is the ambassador of the American Foundation for AIDS Research (Amfar), created in 1985 in order to fund research helping eradicate HIV.

Formany years committed to the fight against HIV and AIDS for more than 20 years, the actress Sharon Stone received the Peace Summit Award in 2013 in recognition of her humanitarian work. She is the ambassador of the American Foundation for AIDS Research (Amfar), created in 1985 in order to fund research helping eradicate HIV.

Formany years committed to the fight against HIV and AIDS for more than 20 years, the actress Sharon Stone received the Peace Summit Award in 2013 in recognition of her humanitarian work. She is the ambassador of the American Foundation for AIDS Research (Amfar), created in 1985 in order to fund research helping eradicate HIV.

Born in 1953 in Kerala, a state in southern India, Amma is today a humanitarian and spiritual figure of international stature. From an early age, animated by an immense love for humanity, Amma comes to the aid of all the suffering people she meets. She brings them food, care and clothing and begins to hug them to console them. This gesture, this maternal embrace called Darshan, she has never stopped implementing. She has hugged more than 36 million people around the world to date. She also spreads her message of love and tolerance all over the planet during major world tours.
Finally, the NGO she founded, Embracing the World, has grown enormously through a network of charities: orphanages, dispensaries, hospitals, social services, schools, training centers, micro-credit programs, ecological projects… As a specialist in emergency relief, ETW has the status of consultant within the UN.
So, for all she has accomplished, Amma has received numerous awards, most notably the Gandhi-King Prize for Nonviolence in 2002.

Actor, director and producer, he is actively engaged not only proffessionally but also personally, through projects and actions of reconciliation and reconstruction through dialogue. Founder of the International Institute for Peace at Rutgers (University, New Jersey, USA). Special Envoy for Peace and Reconciliation.

Through her line of artisanal clothing, she fights for the eradication of poverty through creativity by empowering women and preserving Bangladeshi heritage. The model has been adopted in India, Sri Lanka, Canbodia, Europe and Africa. | UNESCO Artist for Peace.

In 1972, he founded the first Barefoot College, a self-sustaining place of training open to all, based on the value of sustainability and autonomy of rural communities and illeterate people. From Tilana (Rajasthan), its logistic and pedagogical approach, adapted to local contexts, has spread to Asian, Africa and Latin America.

A gynecologist specializing in reconstructive surgery for women who have been raped; since 1999, thanks to him, over 40,000 women have undergone reconstructive surgery in Panzi hospital, in Bukavu, Demoratic Republic of the Congo. A defender and protector of women, he believes that giving women the fair treatment they deserve means that society as a whole benefits immensely. | United Nations Human Rights Prize (2008) | Sakharov Prize (2014) | Peace nobel prize 2018.

A woman of conviction and action, she works for international organizations, developing ans implementing programs for the protection, reconstruction and psychosocial reintegration of unaccompanied minors, chid soldiers ans children inflicted by armed conflicts. She has created THEA (Thread of Hope for Economic Advencement), an economic ans social organization serving the most disavantaged children, women and families in Manila.

Called Maggy or the Angel of Burundi, she is a humanitarian activist who has dedicated her life to improving the well-being of children and fighting ethnic discrimination. After saving 25 children from a massacre she witnessed during the tragic conflicts between Hutu and Tutsi in Burundi in 1993, Marguerite Barankitse decided to create Maison Shalom.
In 22 years, it has become a vast complex of schools, hospitals and a healthcare network with the aim of improving the lives of children in Burundi.
In 2015, “Maggy” forced to flee her country decided to devote all her energy to helping Burundian refugees in neighboring countries. She has received many awards.

Diplomat and committed humanist, who passed away in 2013, he participated in the 1948 drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and through his work promoted a culture of human rights, justice and dignity, efforts that earned him the distinction of being the first laureate of the UNESCO-Bilbao Prize in 2008.

Founder and president of the social developement foundation Transformemos, she promotes equality ans social inclusion, and fights poverty to establish a unified Colombian society. Literacy ans education are at the core of her action. Since its creation, Transformemos has educated 300,000 teenagers and young adults. | UNESCO-Confucius Prize for Literacy (2012).

Virtuoso pianist, passionate musician and ardent defender of human rights, after spending three years imprisoned for trying to make music accessible to everyone in Argentina, he founded in 1982, the NGO Music Esperance to mobilize music in the service of humanity, the protection of human dignity and the artistic rights of musicians.
In 1999, he created the Orchestra of Peace, comprising 40 young musicians of Jewish, Muslim and Christian faith to open pathways towards peace.

The former mayor of Lampedusa is well known for her humanism and her unwavering commitment to the handling of the local refugee crisis, ans for her efforts to integrate the many thousands of them into the island after their arrival. | Recipient of the UNESCO Félix Houphouët-Boigny for the search of Peace (2017)

Diplomat recognized for his efforts to resolve conflicts through dialogue during his twenty years of service with the United Nations. | Laureate of the Special Jury Prize for Conflict Prevention, by the Fondation Chirac (2010), for his work of reconciliation au Lebanon, en Afghanistan et en Iraq | Human Rights Prize of the National Consultative Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (CNCPPDH in its French acronym, 2016).

Tawakkol Karman born in 1979 in Yemen is a journalist, feminist activist and politician. In 2005, she was the co-founder of the group “Women journalists without chains”, aimed at promoting freedom of expression and democratic rights.
In 2011 she won the Nobel Peace Prize, along with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee.
She is one of the leading figures of the Arab Spring in Yemen. For organizing peaceful protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh (1942-2017), she has been arrested several times.
She remains to this day the only Arab woman to have received a Nobel Prize. Tawakkol Karman left Yemen at the end of 2014.

Peace activist, she places women's right, their protection and access to political, economic and social life, at the core of her work in Somalia. She extensively defends women's movements throughout the world. Founder of the Save Somali Women and Children (SSWC). | Right Livelihood Award (2008) | Clinton Global Citizen Award (2009).

An emblematic figure of the Grandmothers of the Mayo human rights association (Asociacion Civil Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo) due to her outstanding work findinf 107 of the 500 stolen and illegally adopted children during the Argentine dictatorship. She was able to find her own grandson after 36 years. | United Nations Human Rights Prize (2003) | UNESCO Felix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize (2010).

Scientist and philosopher, she fights to protect the diverity and integrity of living ressources, promotes organic farming and fair trade, ans defends Indian farming communities. She denounces the ecological, economic and social effects of certain inappropriate agricultural and food-processing practices. Her actions are carried out through the Navdanya movement. | Right Livelihood Award (1993).

A representative of the Kichwa Peaple of Sarayaku from the Ecuadorian Amazon, he fights peacefully for the preservation of the Kichwa traditions and the biodiversity of their native land, threatened by deforestation. He calls on all concerned communities to engage to this issue by following The great living path of flowers (Sisa Nambi), a project that aims to decorate endangered areas worldwide with flowering trees. The flowering tree symbolizes longevity and regeneration.

As a committed psychologist, she devotes her life to protecting and defending the rights of impoverished and vulnerable children and teenagers in Rio de Janeiro by involving family, focal-point networks and support services. Since its creation in 1996, more than 13,000 young people and 4,000 families have benefited from the support of her association Terra dos Homens.

Doctor and author of the autobiographical book Thank you for surviving. The only child survivor out of six thousand, of the Auschwitz camp, he continuously bears witness before hight scholl students and teachers to defend everyday democracy, accompanied by the Foundation for Memory ans the Shoah Memorial.

Famous Amerindian chief living in Brazil, he met Westerners for the first time in 1954 and learned to speak Portuguese. Together with its people, they are concerned about the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, which is their place of life. The world became aware of this problem in 1977.
Become an ambassador of the fight for the preservation of forests and indigenous peoples, Raoni Metuktire traveled the world to raise awareness among populations and their leaders.

Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, born in 1984 in N'Djaména, is a Chadian geographer and activist. A member of the Fulani Mbororo community in Chad, she advocates for the protection of the environment and the promotion of human rights and the rights of indigenous peoples. His expertise is regularly called upon in climate negotiations. His commitment has been rewarded with numerous national and international awards.

Masomah Ali Zada was born in 1996 in Afghanistan and is an Afghan cyclist. She competed in road cycling for the Tokyo 2020 Refugee Olympic Team, is a member of the Athletes' Commission of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and was appointed Head of Mission of the Refugee Olympic Team for Paris 2024.