The Indira Gandhi Award for Peace, Disarmament and Development or simply ‘Indira Gandhi Peace Prize’ was instituted in 1986 by Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust. The award carries a cash prize of Rs 25 lakh and a citation. The Indira Gandhi Peace Prize is given to individuals or organizations who are working towards ensuring international peace and development, ensuring that scientific discoveries are used to further the scope of freedom and better humanity, and creating new international economic order.
The awardees are selected by an international jury which at one point of time was chaired by the Prime Minister of India (under the Congress rule). However, the Jury for the 2019 Prize was chaired by Former president Pranab Mukherjee.
List of past winners of the Indira Gandhi Peace Prize:
1986: Parliamentarians for Global Action
1987: Mikhail Gorbachev (Former Soviet Union Leader)
1988: Gro Harlem Brundtland (Former Prime Minister of Norway)
1989: UNICEF
1990: Sam Nujoma (First President of Namibia)
1991: Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi (1991)
1992: Saburo Okita (Japanese Economist)
1993: Václav Havel (First President of the Czech Republic)
1994: Trevor Huddleston (Anti-Apartheid Activist)
1995: Olusegun Obasanjo (12th President of Nigeria)
1996: Médecins Sans Frontières (Voluntary Organisation)
1997: Jimmy Carter (39th President of the United States)
1998: Muhammad Yunus (Founder of Grameen Bank)
1999: MS Swaminathan (1999) (Indian Agricultural Scientist)
2000: Mary Robinson (7th President of Ireland)
2001: Sadako Ogata (Former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees)
2002: Shridath Ramphal (2nd Commonwealth Secretary-General)
2003: Kofi Annan (7th United Nations Secretary General)
2004: Maha Chakri Sirindhorn (Princess of Thailand)
2005: Hamid Karzai (12th President of Afghanistan)
2006: Wangari Maathai (Environmental and Political activist)
2007: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
2008: Mohamed ElBaradei (4th Director General of the IAEA)
2009: Sheikh Hasina (Prime Minister of Bangladesh)
2010: Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (Ex-President of Brazil)
2011: Ela Bhatt (Founder of SEWA)
2012: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (President of Liberia)
2013: Angel Merkel (Chancellor of Germany)
2014: Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)
2015: UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHRC)
2017: Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
2018: Centre for Science and Environment
2019: David Attenborough (renowned naturalist and broadcaster best known for his BBC nature documentaries)