The Board of Governors of the International Catalan Institute for Peace (ICIP), meeting in Barcelona, has decided to present the 2015 Peace in Progress Award to the Catalan priest and Capuchin friar Joan Botam i Casals, promoter of numerous initiatives linked to peace and ecumenism. Botam is one of the most important figures who introduced pacifism to Catalonia and a strong advocate of religion as a source of peace and dialogue.
Joan Botam (Les Borges Blanques, 1926) holds a doctorate in theology and is the founder of both the Víctor Seix Polemology Institute and the Ecumenical Center of Catalonia, of which he is currently president. His career linked to the pacifist movement begins in 1955, when he becomes chaplain of the religious movement Pax Christi. In 1963 he is elected vicar provincial of the Capuchins of Sarrià and, as such, he plays a key role in the events of the Caputxinada, the sit-in of students, intellectuals and artists in the Capuchin Convent in 1966. His intervention as vicar provincial was decisive in preventing the arrest of the demonstrators.
More recently, Joan Botam represented Barcelona in the United Nations Millennium Summit of religious and spiritual leaders (2000) and was presented with the Creu de Sant Jordi Award (2010) for his contribution to interreligious dialogue and the promotion of peace, coexistence and understanding between cultures.
Previous recipients of the ICIP Award
The ICIP Peace in Progress Award originated in 2011, with an extraordinary edition of the award honoring the Parliament of Catalonia for representing the continuity and legacy of the institutions “Pau i Treva” and “Consolat de Mar.” That same year, the first regular edition of the award recognized the struggle of conscientious objectors and “insubmisos” (people who refuse to do military service or any substitute social work) represented by Pepe Beunza, the first conscientious objector to compulsory military service for ideological reasons in Spain.
Then, in 2012, the ICIP Award was granted to five Madres de Soacha (Mothers of Soacha) for their work in favor of peace and human rights in Colombia. With this award, ICIP wanted to recognize their courage and perseverance in pursuit of truth, justice, and reparations for the killings of their children by the State security forces, and other cases of extrajudicial executions known as false positives.
In 2013, the ICIP Peace in Progress Award was granted to the ex-general born in Belgrade, Jovan Divjak, for his courage in the defense of Sarajevo during the Balkans War and his work in favor of the victims of that conflict.
Finally, in 2014, the award was granted to Women International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) for its century-long involvement in the work of women for peace, as well as its commitment to disarmament, the defense of human rights and the persistence to obtain the recognition of the role of women in the building of peace.
29.01.2015
