The 2009 Nobel Peace Prize

"I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations ... To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who've been honored by this prize ... I will accept this award as a call to action."

Read the announcement from the Nobel Committee.

Read more to see reactions from his fellow Nobel Laureates.

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.

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.