Nominees for Tipp Peace Award

Winner revealed on New Year's Day

The Tipperary International Peace Award has been one of the beacons of hope for peace throughout the world. By recognising peacemakers it has shown how a small group from Tipperary has learned from the past in planning for a peaceful future. The Tipperary Peace Award was first awarded in 1984 to the late Seán McBride, one of the founders of Amnesty International. In the years since 1984 the award has been awarded to a range of peacemakers and world leaders including; Nelson Mandela, Mikhail Gorbachev, Bill Clinton, Benazir Bhutto, Malala Yousafzai, Ban Ki-Moon, Juan Manuel Santos and to civil society campaigns such as the Cluster Munition Coalition.

The many nominations received have now been shortlisted to four and from amongst these will come the recipient of the 2022 Tipperary International Peace Award. They are as follows:

*Shahin Gavanji and Jahangir Gavanji are two award winning Iranian brothers, but they're also world peace ambassadors and child rights activists who are trying to make a safer world for children and to prevent abuse. Because of their activism they have been beaten and forced to flee the country.

*Ifrah Ahmed is a Somali-Irish social activist. She is one of the world's top Female Genital Mutilation eradication advocates and activists.

She is the founder of the United Youth of Ireland non-governmental organization and the Ifrah Foundation.

*Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya is the leader of Belarusian democratic forces. She has played a leading role in non-violently challenging President Aliaksandr Lukashenko and for calling for fair elections.

She was one of the “Chernobyl children” and spent many summers in Roscrea as part of the programme.

*The Irish Defence Forces have been a continuous presence on peace support operations since 1958.

Ireland has a proud tradition of participation in UN and UN-supported peacekeeping missions, both civilian and military. The largest deployment currently is with the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

The announcement of the winner of the 2022 Tipperary International Peace Award will be made on January 1, 2023.