Former Socialist prime minister António Costa receives Félix Houphouët-Boigny prize
Prime minister Luís Montenegro has congratulated his predecessor António Costa on being awarded the Unesco Félix Houphouët-Boigny prize, which he considered as recognition of Mr Costa’s “external action in favor of multilateralism and international cooperation”.
In a publication on the social network X, the head of the Portuguese government added that these priorities are assumed by Portuguese foreign policy “with continuity and coherence”.
Former Prime Minister and European Council President-designate, António Costa, received the Unesco Félix Houphouët-Boigny award for his commitment to peace and developing countries, the organization announced yesterday.
The announcement was made public in a statement by UNESCO, the Paris-based United Nations agency that promotes peace and security through international cooperation in education, art, science and culture.
“We decided to award this award to Prime Minister António Luís Santos da Costa, for his life’s work and for the consistency with which he maintained, in his role as political leader, a commitment to peace and the promotion of developing countries”, Michel Camdessus, vice-president of the jury and former managing director of the International Monetary Fund said in the statement
The award, which in the past has been awarded to Nelson Mandela and Frederik De Klerk, Jimmy Carter and Angela Merkel, aims to distinguish individuals and public or private organizations and institutions who have made a significant contribution to the promotion, pursuit, safeguarding and maintenance of peace, in accordance with with the United Nations Charter and the UNESCO Constitution.
Many will wonder that anyone today could receive a prize for peace with so many corners of the world in terrible conflict, but that is the nature of organisations like UNESCO and the wider United Nations: they keep working towards the goal of ‘multilateralism’, no matter how drastically the goalposts keep changing.
Source material: LUSA
