An annual honor · Inaugural year 2026
The Peace Maker Award
An archive of massacres does not exist only to grieve. It exists to make peace more possible. Each year, this museum honors one figure whose life's work actively defends the vulnerable and builds bridges across the divisions that once produced these crimes.
Why this award
To ensure the atrocities of the past are never repeated, we honor those who actively build bridges of understanding today.
The Peace Maker Award recognizes a living individual — of any nationality or faith — whose sustained, non-violent work has protected minorities, told the truth about persecution, or reconciled communities scarred by sectarian violence.
Who we honor
Journalists
Reporters and editors who expose the persecution of vulnerable communities at personal risk.
Interfaith leaders
Clergy and lay figures who build bridges of understanding across religious divides.
Historians
Scholars whose work preserves the truth of what happened and refuses forgetting.
Grassroots activists
Organizers protecting minorities, resettling the displaced, and reconciling communities in conflict.
Selection criteria
- Demonstrated impact. A verifiable body of work whose effect on a vulnerable community can be described in concrete terms.
- Non-violence. A public record free of incitement, sectarian violence, or the celebration of it.
- Cross-community reach. Work that recognizes the dignity of communities beyond the nominee's own.
- Verifiable public record. Published writing, filmed testimony, institutional recognition, or a documented history of on-the-ground service.
The ceremony · Hybrid format
A virtual broadcast and an in-person gathering
Virtual broadcast
Distributed to partners worldwide
A high-quality pre-recorded presentation of the citation and the recipient's remarks. The broadcast is distributed to partner Catholic universities, UN bodies, the Red Cross, and international media contacts, and is published on this site so that anyone, anywhere, may witness it.
Year 1 primary format.
In-person gathering
An academic dinner, by invitation
A small, invitation-only convening of the selection committee, partner institutions, and the recipient's guests. It serves both as ceremony and as a working meeting of the coalition that sustains this archive.
Venue and date to be announced.
Submit a nomination
Who should be honored this year?
Anyone may nominate: an individual, an academic institution, a newsroom, or an NGO. All submissions are read by the curatorial team and, once the committee is seated, forwarded to it for review.
A nominee may be of any nationality or faith. Self-nominations are permitted but discouraged.
Partnership inquiries