The 2017 Peace Prize was awarded to Carla Del Ponte for her efforts against war crimes and for giving voice to the victims. The delivery ceremony took place at the regional parliament in Wiesbaden.
With her activity as attorney general of the International Criminal Tribunal (ICC) in The Hague for the former Yugoslavia and the one dealing with the genocide in Rwanda, Del Ponte has played a role of "pioneer" against the "culture of 'impunity,' said Angelika Nussberger, Vice-President of the European Court of Human Rights.
The magistrate - he added - "was not interested so much in the wingmen, but rather in those who sat at the controls of the machinery that caused so much harm". In her speech of thanks Carla Del Ponte, just 71 years old, spared no criticism for the inactivity of the international community in the long-standing conflict that continues to bloody Syria. Justice - he observed - can do something "only where there is political will".
Carla del Ponte left the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry into Syria last September and in a speech in Geneva before the Human Rights Council asked for the establishment of a special tribunal for crimes committed in the approximately seven years of the conflict .
Carla del Ponte
Carla del Ponte, a former member of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria, was born in Bignasco, Switzerland, and has a long career behind her both nationally and internationally.
In Switzerland, he served as a prosecutor, working on international cases of money laundering, terrorism, arms trafficking and espionage.
In 1999, after having headed the public ministry of the Confederation for five years, Del Ponte was appointed chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). He holds these positions respectively until 2003 and 2008. During his mandate 91 indictments were filed, including the one against the then President of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milošević and several other senior military and political officials. As chief prosecutor, Del Ponte contributed to the recognition of the Srebrenica massacre in eastern Bosnia as a genocide and to the role of rape used as an instrument of terror in Bosnia, thus constituting a crime against humanity.
Following her retirement from the ICTY, Del Ponte has invested as a Swiss Ambassador in Argentina to 2011, before being appointed to the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria.