Berlin 24 August : The former German chancellor Angela Merkel has been awarded the 2022 Unesco Peace Prize for “her efforts to help refugees”. “All of the members of the jury were moved by her brave decision in 2015 to accept over 1.2 million refugees, most notably from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Eritrea.It is the legacy she leaves behind,” juror president and 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner Denis Mukwege declared on Tuesday.
Director general of the UN cultural agency, Audrey Azoulay, also felicitated Merkel and said her win serves as an opportunity to remind us “that the manner in how we treat immigrants and refugees is an important issue” as reported by the DPA news agency.
The honour, which is officially called Felix Houphouet-Boigny-Unesco Peace Prize, is named after the former president of Ivory Coast.
It has been awarded every year since 1989 to people, groups or institutions who have made an extra effort to encourage, research or to ensure peace.
It is not yet determined when the prize will be awarded to Merkel who resigned from politics in the year following her departure from four terms as Chancellor.
In the summer of 2015, when refugees were pouring through Europe, Merkel opened her country’s borders .She famously announced to Germans “Wir can do this”, “We can do this.”
She eventually backed off her pro-immigration stance after her popularity waned in the public as well as within her conservative political party.
