United Nations Messenger of Peace is a special post-nominal honorific title of authority bestowed by the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
to "distinguished individuals, carefully selected from the fields of art, music, literature and sports, who have agreed to help focus worldwide attention on the work of the United Nations." Globally, present and past messengers of peace are the only public figures that are or may be legally and diplomatically known as a "United Nations Goodwill Ambassador". Other United Nations goodwill ambassador programmes in the UN system participants assign their title of authority (commission) using the agency name or patent program acronym or abbreviation such as:
UN Women Goodwill Ambassador __NOTOC__
UN Women Goodwill Ambassador is an official postnominal honorific title, title of authority, legal status and job description assigned to those goodwill ambassadors and advocates who are designated by the United Nations. UN Women good ...
;
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador is an official postnominal honorific title, title of authority, legal status and job description assigned to those goodwill ambassadors and advocates who are designated by the United Nations. The United Nations Intern ...
;
UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador
UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador is an official postnominal honorific title, title of authority, legal status and job description assigned to those goodwill ambassadors and advocates who are designated by the United Nations. UNESCO goodwill ambassad ...
; UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador; and other legal designations following their name.
The messengers are initially chosen to serve for a period of three years; however, all of the current thirteen messengers have served for more than five years, some of them as long as 15 or 20 years. The Messengers of Peace idea was started in 1997 as a central addition to the system of UN
goodwill ambassadors and
cause advocates, which has been operated by the different UN agencies since 1954, when
UNICEF
UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Devel ...
appointed
Danny Kaye
Danny Kaye (born David Daniel Kaminsky; yi, דוד־דניאל קאַמינסקי; January 18, 1911 – March 3, 1987) was an American actor, comedian, singer and dancer. His performances featured physical comedy, idiosyncratic pantomimes, and ...
as its first goodwill ambassador.
Whilst the ambassadors and advocates mainly promote the work of the UN specialized agency or division they were appointed by, a Messenger of Peace is intended to promote the work of the United Nations in general and is commissioned directly by the
Secretary-General of the United Nations
The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or SG) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the six principal organs of the United Nations.
The role of the secretary-g ...
most often with a formal ceremony.
Current messengers
*
Michael Douglas
Michael Kirk Douglas (born September 25, 1944) is an American actor and film producer. He has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and the AF ...
- designated 1998
*
Jane Goodall
Dame Jane Morris Goodall (; born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall on 3 April 1934), formerly Baroness Jane van Lawick-Goodall, is an English primatologist and anthropologist. Seen as the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best know ...
- designated 2002
*
Yo-Yo Ma
Yo-Yo Ma (''Chinese'': 馬友友 ''Ma Yo Yo''; born October 7, 1955) is an American cellist. Born in Paris to Chinese parents and educated in New York City, he was a child prodigy, performing from the age of four and a half. He graduated from ...
- designated 2006
*
Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein
Princess Haya bint Hussein ( ar, الأميرة هيا بنت الحسين; born 3 May 1974) is the daughter of King Hussein of Jordan and his third wife Queen Alia, and the half-sister of King Abdullah II.
She is a graduate of the University ...
- designated 2007
*
Daniel Barenboim
Daniel Barenboim (; in he, דניאל בארנבוים, born 15 November 1942) is an Argentine-born classical pianist and conductor based in Berlin. He has been since 1992 General Music Director of the Berlin State Opera and "Staatskapellmeist ...
- designated 2007
*
Paulo Coelho
Paulo Coelho de Souza (, ; born 24 August 1947) is a Brazilian lyricist and novelist and a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters since 2002. His novel ''The Alchemist'' became an international best-seller and he has published 28 more books ...
- designated 2007
*
Midori Goto
, who performs under the mononym Midori, is a Japanese-born American violinist. She made her debut with the New York Philharmonic at age 11 as a surprise guest soloist at the New Year's Eve Gala in 1982. In 1986 her performance at the Tanglewood ...
- designated 2007
*
Charlize Theron
Charlize Theron ( ; ; born 7 August 1975) is a South African and American actress and producer. One of the world's highest-paid actresses, she is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award. In 20 ...
- designated 2008
*
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, Pop musi ...
- designated 2009
*
Edward Norton
Edward Harrison Norton (born August 18, 1969) is an American actor and filmmaker. He has received numerous awards and nominations, including a Golden Globe Award and three Academy Award nominations.
Born in Boston, Massachusetts and raised ...
- designated 2010
*
Lang Lang
Lang Lang (; born 14 June 1982) is a Chinese pianist who has performed with leading orchestras in China, North America, Europe, and elsewhere. Active since the 1990s, he was the first Chinese pianist to be engaged by the Berlin Philharmonic, ...
- designated 2013
*
Leonardo DiCaprio - designated 2014
*
Malala Yousafzai
Malala Yousafzai ( ur, , , pronunciation: ; born 12 July 1997), is a Pakistani female education activist and the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Awarded when she was 17, she is the world's youngest Nobel Prize laureate, and the second Pak ...
- designated 2017
Former Messengers
*
Enrico Macias
Gaston Ghrenassia (born 11 December 1938), known by his stage name Enrico Macias, is an Algerian-French singer, songwriter and musician of Algerian Jewish descent.
Early years
Gaston Ghrenassia was born to a Sephardic Algerian Jewish family i ...
- designated 1997
*
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed "The Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century, a ...
- designated 1998
*
Anna Cataldi
Anna Margherita Cataldi (14 November 1939 – 1 September 2021) was an Italian humanitarian, journalist, film producer, and author of several books.
She is known for having been executive producer for the Academy Award-winning ''Out of Africa ...
- designated 1998
*
Luciano Pavarotti
Luciano Pavarotti (, , ; 12 October 19356 September 2007) was an Italian operatic tenor who during the late part of his career crossed over into popular music, eventually becoming one of the most acclaimed tenors of all time. He made numerou ...
- designated 1998
*
Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel (, born Eliezer Wiesel ''Eliezer Vizel''; September 30, 1928 – July 2, 2016) was a Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Peace Prize, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He authored Elie Wiesel b ...
- designated 1998
*
Vijay Amritraj
Vijay Amritraj (born 14 December 1953) is an Indian sports commentator, actor and retired professional tennis player from Madras. He was awarded the Padma Shri, India's 4th highest civilian honour, in 1983.In 2022, he was honored for his cont ...
- designated 2001
*
Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Learson Marsalis (born October 18, 1961) is an American trumpeter, composer, teacher, and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has promoted classical and jazz music, often to young audiences. Marsalis has won nine Grammy Awar ...
- designated 2001
*
George Clooney
George Timothy Clooney (born May 6, 1961) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by George Clooney, numerous accolades, including a British Academy Film Awards, British Academy Film A ...
- designated 2008
*
Wangari Maathai
Wangarĩ Muta Maathai (; 1 April 1940 – 25 September 2011) was a Kenyan social, environmental and a political activist and the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. As a beneficiary of the Kennedy Airlift, she studied in the Un ...
- designated 2009
See also
*
Goodwill Ambassador
Goodwill ambassador is a post-nominal honorific title, a professional occupation and/or authoritative designation that is assigned to a person who advocates for a specific cause or global issue on the basis of their notability such as a public ...
*
FAO Goodwill Ambassador
FAO Goodwill Ambassador is an official postnominal honorific title, title of authority, legal status and job description assigned to goodwill ambassadors and advocates who are designated by the United Nations. FAO goodwill ambassadors are celebri ...
*
UNDP Goodwill Ambassador __NOTOC__
UNDP Goodwill Ambassador is an official postnominal honorific title, title of authority, legal status and job description assigned to those goodwill ambassadors and advocates who are designated by the United Nations. The United Natio ...
*
UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador
UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador is an official postnominal honorific, honorific title, title of authority, legal status and job description assigned to those Goodwill ambassador, goodwill ambassadors and activists, advocates who are designated by the ...
*
UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador
UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador is an official postnominal honorific title, title of authority, legal status and job description assigned to those goodwill ambassadors and advocates who are designated by the United Nations. UNESCO goodwill ambassad ...
*
UNODC Goodwill Ambassador __NOTOC__
UNODC Goodwill Ambassador is an official postnominal honorific title, title of authority, legal status and job description assigned to those who are designated by the United Nations. UNODC goodwill ambassadors are celebrity advocates o ...
*
UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador __NOTOC__
UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador is an official postnominal honorific title, title of authority, legal status and job description assigned to those goodwill ambassadors and advocates who are designated by the United Nations. UNFPA goodwill a ...
*
UN Women Goodwill Ambassador __NOTOC__
UN Women Goodwill Ambassador is an official postnominal honorific title, title of authority, legal status and job description assigned to those goodwill ambassadors and advocates who are designated by the United Nations. UN Women good ...
*
UNIDO Goodwill Ambassador __NOTOC__
UNIDO Goodwill Ambassador is an official postnominal honorific title, title of authority, legal status and job description assigned to those goodwill ambassadors and advocates who are designated by the United Nations. UNIDO goodwill a ...
*
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador is an official postnominal honorific title, title of authority, legal status and job description assigned to those goodwill ambassadors and advocates who are designated by the United Nations. The United Nations Intern ...
*
WHO Goodwill Ambassador
WHO Goodwill Ambassador is an official postnominal honorific title, title of authority, legal status and job description assigned to those goodwill ambassadors and advocates who are designated by the United Nations. WHO goodwill ambassadors ar ...
* United Nations Messengers of Peace
References
External links
United Nations Messengers of PeaceUnited Nations Former Messengers of Peace
Goodwill ambassador programmes
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