Buenos Aires (Argentina), 1931

By Ivana Jinkings

An Argentine visual artist and pacifist, Esquivel studied architecture at the National School of Fine Arts in his country and later dedicated himself to sculpture, complementing his artistic career with teaching at the National University of La Plata. Internationally recognized for his artistic work, Esquivel aligned himself with the followers of Gandhi and nonviolence starting in 1971. In 1973, during another military coup in Argentina, he founded Paz y Justicia, a newspaper that quickly became a symbol of the pacifist movement and human rights defense in Latin America. Persecuted by the dictatorship, he was imprisoned between 1977 and 1979. While incarcerated, he received the John XXIII Memorial Peace Prize, awarded by the International Pax Christi Organization. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1980 for his efforts in defending human rights. Several years later, he was appointed a member of the executive committee of the Permanent Assembly of the United Nations for Human Rights.

Esquivel is the president of the Peace and Justice Service (Serpaj) in Argentina, a social organization recognized by UNESCO, and a member of the sponsorship committee for the International Coordination for the Decade of Nonviolence and Peace Culture. He is also the president of the Academy of Environmental Sciences in Venice, Italy, leading a global campaign for the creation of an international court to judge major environmental crimes. A human rights activist, Esquivel met Pope Francis in 2013 and again in 2015.