Forest Whitaker
A world-renowned actor, Forest Whitaker promotes peace and reconciliation between and within communities, using educational tools in areas affected by conflict and violence.
President of the Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative (WPDI), he is a campaigner for the Youth Peace-maker Network (YPN), promoting peace-building and conflict resolution in crisis-affected countries. WPDI works jointly with UNESCO in Southern Sudan, Uganda and Mexico. WPDI has also launched the Conflict Resolution Education (CRE) program in the USA, which contributes to the development of youth leadership and cohesion in schools.
In his capacity as UNESCO Special Envoy for Peace and Reconciliation, the film he produced, ‘For the Sake of Peace’, was screened in his presence in May 2023 for the UNESCO Campus XL dedicated to the theme of ‘Building Peace’. He also took part in UNESCO's global #SharingHumanity campaign in 2023, alongside other Goodwill Ambassadors, and in the 75th anniversary celebrations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in December 2023.
He was present at the United States of America flag-raising ceremony that took place at UNESCO Headquarters on 25 July 2023, in the presence of Ms Jill Biden, the First Lady of the United States of America.
