Despite all the ghastliness that is around, human beings are made for goodness. The ones who ought to be held in high regard are not the ones who are militarily powerful, nor even economically prosperous. They are the ones who have a commitment to try and make the world a better place. We – The Elders – will endeavour to support those people and do our best for humanity. - Desmond Tutu seen here with Nelson Mandela. Nobel Peace Prize winners, other leaders work to end war, eradicate poverty and amplify political voices that otherwise go unheard.WASHINGTON (The Austin American-Statesman), November 18, 2007:
One led the movement that toppled apartheid. Another brought loans to the global poor. Another led the United Nations, another the United States, and yet another is under house arrest in Myanmar.
All are Nobel Peace Prize winners bound by common concerns for ending war, eradicating poverty and amplifying political voices that otherwise go unheard. Together, this group — Nelson Mandela, Muhammad Yunus, Kofi Annan, Jimmy Carter and Aung San Suu Kyi — and eight other activists and former leaders and diplomats have gathered to conduct informal diplomacy aimed at helping to solve some of the world's most intractable problems.
They have a Web site, a mission statement and a name, "The Elders," inspired by the traditions of African tribes who turn to senior members for sage counsel.
Analysts say the Elders can make a difference, using their access to leaders, their moral authority and their ability to serve as a useful back channel for the informal diplomacy that can help to fill in the gaps in the capabilities of national governments.
"Relations between states are only a very small part of the complex web of international relations ... of businessmen visiting prime ministers, of civil rights activists seeing foreign ministers," said former American diplomat Daniel Serwer, a conflict resolution expert with the U.S. Institute of Peace, a nonpartisan think tank funded by the U.S. Congress.
"These people have access," Serwer said of the Elders. "Among them, they could probably see any head of state on Earth."
They also stand for something, individually and collectively.
"These are people who are known throughout the world as not only citizens of a nation but people who care about all of the world. And that permits them a voice that is quite unique and which very few governments can ignore," said former White House aide Robert Pastor, interim co-director of the Elders.
"The Elders are not trying to substitute for, or duplicate, what governments or intergovernmental organizations are doing, but really to supplement, reinforce and fill the gaps," Pastor said. "The critical question will be whether they can join their individual influence to create a collective source of power that can do what governments and intergovernmental institutions cannot."
That covers a lot of ground. For all the power and influence of the United States, its global partners and the United Nations, enduring conflicts persist worldwide, alongside global ills ranging from disease and climate change to violations of human rights.
At the turn of the millennium, British rock star Peter Gabriel and airline magnate Richard Branson began talking about ways they might harness the moral authority and global access of figures such as Mandela.
In July, the idea bore fruit, when Mandela, who spent nearly three decades in prison for leading the opposition to South Africa's racial oppression, and 12 other senior statesmen banded together to form the Elders.
The group's first mission, conducted in late summer, was to Sudan.
There, Carter and fellow Elders Lakhdar Brahimi, an Algerian diplomat, Graca Machel, a Mozambican advocate for women's and children's rights, and anti-apartheid leader and Anglican priest Desmond Tutu looked at ways to resolve Sudan's long civil war and the violence in the Sudanese region of Darfur, where more than 225,000 civilians have died in what President Bush has condmned as a genocide.
In addition to Darfur, the Elders have set their sights on trying to help resolve conflicts in Myanmar, where an authoritarian government has run roughshod over pro-democracy activists for decades; Zimbabwe, where political refomers face their own repression at the hand of strongman Robert Mugabe; and the Middle East, where six decades of bloodshed and enmity between Arabs and Israelis continues to destabilize the region and cause loss and despair for its inhabitants.
There are limits, certainly, to what moral authority and a great Rolodex can accomplish. Mideast experts, for example, say resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict will require tough actions by both parties, not the kind of mediation the Elders might provide.
At the same time, the sorry history of Mideast peace efforts demonstrates the limits of state power and influence and, perhaps, Pastor said, the opportunity for nonstate actors to play a constructive role.
"The fact that, for 60 years, the Middle East has been seared by conflict, is a classic case of where governments have not found the path toward peace, though the people clearly hunger for it," Pastor said.
Similar conclusions might be suggested by Myanmar, Zimbabwe and Darfur.
"In those cases," Pastor said, "one hopes that the collective moral authority of the Elders might find new paths towards helping the sides resolve the conflict."
The Elders
Five Nobel Peace Prize winners and eight other leaders and activists have joined forces as 'The Elders' to help spread peace, democracy, prosperity and hope using informal diplomacy and statecraft.
Jimmy Carter: Former U.S. president whose post-White House work includes monitoring elections and promoting democracy. 
Nelson Mandela: Spent 27 years in prison for his opposition to apartheid in South Africa; served as country's first post-apartheid president. 
The Rev. Desmond Tutu: Anti-apartheid activist and a leader in the reconciliation program that followed apartheid's demise.
Kofi Annan: Former U.N. secretary-general. 
Ela Bhatt: Organizer and advocate for women's rights in India.
Gro Harlem Brundtland: Medical doctor, public health advocate and former prime minister of Norway.
Fernando Henrique Cardoso: Former president of Brazil.
Mary Robinson: First female president of Ireland and former U.N. high commissioner for human rights.
Aung San Suu Kyi: Leader of the struggle for democracy in Myanmar. 
Graca Machel: Social, political and economic activist in Mozambique.
Lakhdar Brahimi: Former Algerian diplomat.
Li Zhaoxing: Former Chinese diplomat and foreign ministry spokesman.
Muhammad Yunus: Founder of the Grameen Bank Project in Bangladesh and father of the global micro-credit movement. By Bob Deans,The Austin American-Statesman
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The Elders
Copyright 2007 The Austin American-Statesman.
