Nobel Peace Prize 1983: Lech Walesa

The posting by Khmer Democrat on the Solidarity Movement of the Polish Labor Union led me to choose next its leader Lech Walesa in my series on Nobel Peace Laureates. I get goose bumps in reading about his life, his struggles and now to know in hindsight how they paid off grandly for the prosperity and development of present-day Poland, a shining member of the European Union, especially in the way it handled smoothly with great democratic maturity the transition of leadership after the very tragic plane crash earlier this year.

Also, in reading this Award Ceremony Speech about Lech Walesa, my thoughts keep flashing back to the courage and sacrifices of Chea Vichea, the labor union leader—who was slain in broad daylight, with all evidence pointing to the power-that-be—a man I was honored to call a friend since 1995. (I highly recommend watching the award-winning film Who Killed Chea Vichea? by Bradley Cox.)

In SOLIDARITY with the oppressed, with the aggrieved, with the poor, with the landless, with the hard-working people of Cambodia – the silent majority who are growing impressively loud.

- Theary C. Seng, Phnom Penh, 5 Oct. 2010

. . . . .

Award Ceremony Speech delivered by Egil Aarvik, Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, on the occasion of the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize for 1983, Oslo, December 10, 1983.

Your Majesty, Your Royal Highnesses, Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:

"Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world."

Thus begins the text of the United Nations' Declaration of Human Rights, a declaration which, with its definition of the concept of peace, forms the basis of the Norwegian Nobel Committee's decision to award this year's Peace Prize to the Polish trade union leader, Lech Walesa.

The campaign for human rights is, necessarily, an inseparable part of the struggle for peace. The selection of a Peace Prize winner on these grounds is not new: laureates such as the South African Albert Lutuli, Martin Luther King from the U.S.A., Andrei Sakharov from the U.S.S.R., and the Argentinian Adolfo Pérez Esquivel received, their awards on just these grounds. The Committee believes that this year's prize winner can justly take his place among this gathering of campaigners for human rights.