Welcome
Building Peace
Human Rights
Resolving Conflicts
Disarmament
Women
Sustainability

Welcome to TheCommunity.com

For eight years, we have connected our visitors to the Nobel Peace Prize winners and the artists and organizations that support their valuable work.

We invite you to connect with these remarkable individuals, meet people who share your interests, and find out how you can make the world a little bit better today.

Find out more about Thecommunity.com

Building Peace

Peace is not just an absence of armed conflict. Peace is communities that are able to thrive without sliding into conflict. Peace is farmers working their fields, children going to school, couples falling in love, businesses expanding --- people living without the threat of obliteration hanging over their heads.

How those communities are created is the subject of peace building. Its elements include fundamentals such as understanding human rights, literacy, global health, reducing extreme poverty and more.

Find out more about Building Peace

Human Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights outlines 30 basic rights and freedoms to which all individuals are entitled. Nearly every armed conflict has been preceded by gross violations of these rights. Sometimes these rights are stripped away by an oppressive military dictatorship. They can also be gradually eroded in an otherwise free society.

Either way, when you see them go, that society is moving toward conflict and oppression.

Find out more about Human Rights

Resolving Conflicts

When armed conflict looms, or when a society or region has descended into conflict, the work of the peacemakers begins.

Conflict resolution can range from children on a playground learning other ways to resolve their differences --- instilling values that they will carry with them into their adult lives --- to bringing warring parties together at a negotiating table.

Find out more about Resolving Conflicts

Disarmament

One of the absurdities of the human race is that our intelligence and resources are used to create more effective ways to do ourselves in.

When we've reached a point where our scientists are developing new weapons to irradiate water supplies for future generations or developing landmines deliberately made to look like a child's toy, it has to stop.

Find out more about Disarmament

Women

It's been said that men wage war while women work to create a safe environment to raise their children in.

Cultivating the contribution of this "global peace party" requires that we confront and address violence against women, increase access to education for girls, and encourage the civic participation of women globally.

Find out more about Women

Sustainability

Peace building will ultimately mean nothing if we effectively destroy the planet we share.

What else needs to be said?

Find out more about Sustainability

Already a member? Log In

Not a member? Join

Connect to people who know how to make real change in the world:

Archbishop Desmond Tutu to the Dalai Lama: We stand with you

Chinese officials continue to answer questions about human rights issues in Tibet with public scorn. Archbishop Desmond Tutu has stepped forward and asked us to raise our voices in support of the Dalai Lama and human rights.

Sign the letter today and stand behind these two moral authorities for the future of the Tibetan religion and culture.

Who's signed it?

Business, human rights and entertainment leaders are stepping forward and adding their voices to Archbishop Tutu's call.

See them here.

About TheCommunity.com

Since 2000, TheCommunity.com has been an Internet home for the Nobel Peace Prize laureates, and a growing international network for peace and human rights. In those years, through working with the Nobel Peace Prize laureates and some of the leading organizations in these fields, we have come to broaden our view of peace and what it means.

Read about our approach here.

The Zones of Peace Salon

On February 17, 2009, TheCommunity.com launched the Zones of Peace program with a private salon at the home of actress and human rights activist Anne Archer. President Ramos-Horta spoke to approximately 75 artists, film industry leaders, and foundation personnel and answered questions about the program. Anne's organization, Artists for Human Rights, which activates artists to raise awareness of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights worldwide, is a partner organization in the Zones of Peace program.

Raising hope for Congo

On January 14 TheCommunity.com hosted a private salon in Los Angeles in support of the Raise Hope for Congo campaign.

We produced the event with our partner organization Enough, the project to end genocide and crimes against humanity, with support from Enough Envoys Javier Bardem, Emile Hirsch, Robin Wright Penn, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Joel Madden, Maria Bello and Mia Farrow.

John Prendergast, Co-chair of the Enough project, and a widely recognized authority on genocide and Africa, spoke, with actor Emile Hirsch (Into the Wild, Milk).

See the photos...

Shirin Ebadi's Human Rights Center shut down

The Iranian government on Sunday closed Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi's Center for the Defense of Human Rights in Tehran.

Plainclothes detectives and police entereted the center and shut it down hours before a ceremony was to take place commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

We are in touch with three other organizations currently on a strategy for helping and will let you know soon what you can do.

Read the full story here.

Bono honored as "Man of Peace"

Cheered on by a well-attended audience, U2 singer Bono was honored with the Prix de L’édition 2008 during the 9th World Summit of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates held at Hotel de Ville in Paris, France on Friday.

With actress Penelope Cruz and France’s first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy looking on, the Irish-born singer was bestowed the “Man of Peace” prize for his efforts in tackling African debt, disease and poverty.

“This is a very big award for me, because let’s be honest this is as close as I am going to get—as close as a rock star is ever going to get to the Nobel Peace Prize,” Bono, 48, told the audience.

“I am an over-awarded, over-rewarded rock star. You are the people who do the real work,” he said to all of the past Nobel Prize winners on-hand, adding, “So I am very, very pleased to be in such esteemed company.”

José Ramos-Horta condemns Mumbai attacks

President of East Timor and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Dr Jose Ramos-Horta strongly condemned the terrorist attack in Mumbai today.

“This cowardly attack on innocent civilians deliberately targeting American and British Citizens must be condemned by all, and must rally all countries to pursue the fight against terrorism even more relentlessly,” said President Ramos-Horta.

“This terrorist attack, coming after the landslide election victory of President elect Barrack Obama, who is supported and admired by millions around the world, highlights the real aim of the terrorists and other extremists around the world”.

“They are not interested in seeking dialogue and peaceful means to resolve whatever differences they might have with the West. It is self evident that whoever is in the White House in the United States, terrorism will not stop,” the President said

President Jose Ramos-Horta, express his profound sympathy and solidarity with the Indian Government and people as well as the victims of the attack.

Desmond Tutu on Obama: heal this country

"I am so excited about Obama. All the world should be. He is a voice for people who haven't had much of a voice in this country. What he represents is absolutely to heal this country from what it has been experiencing".

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has said he is sure the world will enter a new era when the Democratic Party candidate Barack Obama becomes president of the United States of America.

Celebrate!!

Hope has trumped fear and peace is no longer a dirty word in the US. And now the work really begins...

Mandela: All can dream of a better world

"Your victory has demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not dare to dream of wanting to change the world for a better place."

Nelson Mandela said in a letter to President-Elect Obama's that his election as US president showed that anybody could dream to change the world.

Click below for text of the letter.

Mairead Maguire: a fresh approach

"Obama brings an energy, a fresh approach and a new way of thinking and acting."

The wonderful news that Barack Obama has been today elected the new President of the United States of America will bring hope to millions of people in our world today.

F.W. De Klerk's letter to Obama

"You will be assuming office at a very difficult time in world history"

Dear President-elect Obama

I should like to add my voice to the many messages of congratulations that you have already received on your election to the Presidency of the United States. You will be assuming office at a very difficult time in world history - when you will have to grapple with the worst economic and financial crisis since the Great Depression and when you will also have to deal with the difficult and unresolved problems of the Middle East. In addition, you will have to take on the mantle of leadership of the world's foremost democracy and economic power.

I should like to wish you every strength and success in the important office to which you have been elected - and I know, that there will be a special place in your thoughts for the continuing problems and challenges of Africa.

Yours sincerely

F W DE KLERK
Former President of the Republic of South Africa

Wangari Maathai plants a tree in honor

"I want to remember his victory by a tree".

While millions of Kenyans celebrated the victory of their "son of the soil" Obama, Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai said today that she will plant a tree today in honor of Obama's victory.

Maathai won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 "for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace." She and the grassroots-level women's groups she has organized have been responsible for planting more than 30 million trees in Kenya and other parts of Africa.

In 2006 Obama joined Maathai in Nairobi and, with the help of his daughters and wife Michelle, planted an African olive tree and a warbugia ugan densis. Afterwards Maathai talked about the “linkage between the sustainable management of resources…and peace.’’’

It’s okay to start small she said as Obama looked on. “Imagine if everyone in the world planted a tree."

Gorbachev: Obama will rebuild the US

Former President of the USSR and Nobel Peace Prize winner Mikhail Gorbachev has welcomed Barack Obama's victory today, saying he would bring "perestroika" to the United States.

"It is no accident that the whole world followed these elections, including in Russia, where they were followed like never before. This shows there is hope that the arrival of a new administration will bring changes," he said.

Mr Gorbachev said that the election of the United States' first black president was a "lesson" for other countries and showed "a very strong side of America".

Amnesty International: focus on human rights

"The new administration must focus on righting some of the wrongs of the Bush administration and restoring the United States as a human rights champion at home and abroad."

Amnesty International today urged U.S. President-elect Obama to show true leadership by making human rights central to his new administration. The organization is calling on the new president to take concrete steps in his first 100 days in office that would show genuine commitment to bringing the United States into line with its international obligations.

Rwanda and Congo: Ashley Judd diaries

Actress Ashley Judd recently sent us her diaries from a trip to Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

One of the US's most prominent advocates of women's rights, Ashley has a long history of contribution to Africa. She is a global ambassador for YouthAIDS, a board member of Population Services International, and a global ambassador for its Five & Alive initiative, which aims to improve the health of children under five.

In this insightful journal she takes us through her personal experiences walking through Rwanda's genocide memorial, visiting orphanages and clinics, and seeing the hope and rebirth taking place in the country. She makes a side trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo, and recounts a chilling trip to a women's clinic there that is distributing mosquito nets to pregnant women.

Intelligent and articulate, Ashley allows us to see Rwanda and Congo through the eyes of an affluent, educated Western woman with real compassion.

Read the diaries

Congo: What you can do

Three things you can do in the next fifteen minutes to help the women and children of Congo.