About Us

The Gandhi Peace Award nominees are distinguished by having made, over a period of years, a significant contribution to the promotion of an enduring international peace founded on justice, self-determination, diversity, compassion, and harmony, achieved through cooperative and non-violent means—in the spirit of Gandhi. 

 The Gandhi Peace Award is marked by a significant medallion and a certificate with an inscription summing up the work for peace of a distinguished citizen of the world. The medallion features the profile of Mohandas K. Gandhi, with his words “Love Ever Suffers/Never Revenges Itself” cast in bronze. The recipient’s name is added to a weighty carved statue of the Mahatma. The Award is presented at a ceremony held approximately once a year, at which a distinguished peacemaker is recognized and given the opportunity to present a message of challenge and hope. It is to be awarded “for contributions made in the promotion of international peace and good will.” 

 Like all of the perennial activities of Promoting Enduring Peace (PEP), the Gandhi Peace Award was conceived by the organization’s founder, Dr. Jerome Davis, in the early nineteen fifties. At the Board of Director’s meeting on March 13, 1959, he formally proposed that a yearly award be given to persons outstanding in their work for world peace. 

 A famous New York sculptor, Don Benaron/Katz, was commissioned to create a work of art to serve as the symbol of the Award. He researched Gandhi at the library of the India House in New York City and by 1960 had carved a striking portrait of the founder of the century’s international movement for nonviolent change. He wrote, “I carved the Gujarati word for peace on one side, and on the other a symbolic plowshare and pruning hook inspired by Isaiah 2:4? 

They shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.

Beginning in 2012 the Gandhi Peace Award medallion was created by “From War to Peace“, a California company that uses recycled copper from disarmed nuclear missile systems to create Peace Bronze, the most precious metal in our world. American materials that once sent launch signals to the most violent weapons ever created have been transformed to help launch peace in the 21st century. 

For honorees names, video, etc. click here.