Seventy-six year old Paride Taban, Bishop Emeritus of Taban, South Sudan, has won the U.N. peace prize 2013 for his efforts to foster reconciliation in this conflict-torn part of the world.
The decision was motivated by his work at the Holy Trinity Peace Village in Kuron, in the east of South Sudan. Founded by Bishop Taban in 2005 (the year in which civil war ended in South Sudan), the village brings together people from different tribes and faiths that have been in conflict for years, teaching them how to live together in peace and use their talents for mutual enrichment.
The Sergio Vieira de Mello Prize is awarded annually to an individual, community or institution seen as having made an exceptional contribution to the reconciliation of communities or groups in conflict. It is conferred in memory of Brazilian Sergio Vieira de Mello, the U.N.’s former human rights chief, who was killed in a bombing in Iraq in 2003.