Thorbjørn Jagland (center), chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee and secretary-general of the Council of Europe, received the Harvard Foundation’s Humanitarian Award. While at Harvard, he also delivered the Peter J. Gomes Humanitarian Lecture and the Jodidi Lecture on World Peace at Harvard’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.

Justin Ide/Harvard Staff Photographer

Campus & Community

Harvard Foundation honors Jagland

2 min read

Nobel Peace Prize chairman receives Humanitarian Award

The Harvard Foundation presented its annual Humanitarian Award to Thorbjørn Jagland, chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee and secretary-general of the Council of Europe.

The award, which bears the signature of Harvard’s president, was given in recognition of Jagland’s “notable contributions to humanitarianism and the cause of peace.” While at Harvard, Jagland delivered the Peter J. Gomes Humanitarian Lecture and the Jodidi Lecture on World Peace at Harvard’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.

“Harvard University was proud to honor Thorbjørn Jagland for his commitment to human rights and individual freedoms,” said S. Allen Counter, director of the Harvard Foundation. “Our students and faculty were impressed with his humanitarian philosophy and his heartfelt remarks.”

The award was presented at Harvard’s historic Winthrop House, the college residence of President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Robert Kennedy. Previous recipients of the award include U.N. Secretaries-General Kofi Annan, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, and Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, in addition to Noble Peace Prize winners Eli Wiesel, Jose Ramos-Horta, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.