December 2008, Mr. Ahtisaari was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

Martti Ahtisaari was born in the city of Viipuri; then still part of Finland. Finland lost Viipuri when Soviet Unionattacked the country during the Second World War.  At the age of four along with 400 000 fellow Carelians, Martti Ahtisaari became an eternally displaced person in the rest of Finland. Martti Ahtisaari graduated from the University of Oulu (Finland) in 1959.

Martti Ahtisaari has made a distinguished career with the United Nations and the Finnish Foreign Ministry. He led the independence process of Namibia acting as the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Namibia between 1978 and 1988 and leading the UN operation (UNTAG) in 1989-1990 in Namibia. Martti Ahtisaari is an Honorary Citizen of Namibia.

Mr. Ahtisaari acted as the Under-Secretary General in the UN for Administration and Management between 1987 and 1991.

Martti Ahtisaari was elected as President of the Republic of Finland in 1994 and he held the position until the end of February 2000.

Upon leaving office as President of the Republic of Finland, Mr. Ahtisaari has taken several international tasks to continue his career in international peace-mediation and conflict resolution. His tasks are being assisted by the Crisis Management Initiative, a Non-Governmental Organisation that Mr. Ahtisaari founded in 2000 and where he acts as the Chairman of the Board.

Mr. Ahtisaari’s post-presidential activities have included facilitating the peace process between the Government of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement, chairing an independent panel on the security and safety of UN personnel in Iraq and appointments as the UN Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa and Personal Envoy of the OSCE CiO for Central Asia. Between 14 November 2005 and 29 February 2008, Mr. Ahtisaari acted as the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for the future status process for Kosovo.

Today, President Ahtisaari is active in numerous non-governmental and non-profit organisations. It is his firm belief that all conflicts can be resolved and his current main tasks deal with conflict resolution, peacebuilding and statebuilding. Martti Ahtisaari believes strongly of the European values and the potential of the European Union in the international scene and is an ardent supporter of transatlantic cooperation.

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