The World Peace Council

World Peace Council

The World Peace Council is an international organization that advocates universal disarmament, sovereignty and independence and peaceful co-existence, and campaigns against imperialism, weapons of mass destruction and all forms of discrimination...

 (WPC), an anti-imperialist

Anti-imperialism

Anti-imperialism, strictly speaking, is a term that may be applied to a movement opposed to any form of colonialism or imperialism. Anti-imperialism includes opposition to wars of conquest, particularly of non-contiguous territory or people with a different language or culture; it also includes...

 non-governmental organization, has awarded a number of prizes, beginning in 1950. These have been awarded to individuals, organisations, peoples, and places. Typically, several winners would be voted at one WPC congress; these, or their representative, would receive their prize at a later congress, or from a WPC delegation. Extra prizes were awarded in 1959 and 1964, to mark the WPC's 10th and 15th anniversaries.

The awards include:

• International Peace Prize established at the first World Congress of Peace held in April, 1949, in Paris
  Paris
  Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
  
  . The original 1949 regulations envisaged prizes for art, literature, film, or industrial work which advanced the cause of peace among nations. In 1951, the WPC recategorised three distinct awards:
  • International Peace Prize, last awarded in 1957.
  • Honorary International Peace Prize, for posthumous award.
  • Medal of Peace, renamed in 1959 the Joliot-Curie Medal of Peace, in honour of Frédéric Joliot-Curie
    Frédéric Joliot-Curie
    Jean Frédéric Joliot-Curie , born Jean Frédéric Joliot, was a French physicist and Nobel laureate.-Early years:...
    
    , who led the WPC till his death in 1958. This medal has been awarded in silver, but the highest WPC honour is the gold medal.
• Ho Chi Minh Award, a leadership award established in honour of Ho Chi Minh
  Ho Chi Minh
  Hồ Chí Minh , born Nguyễn Sinh Cung and also known as Nguyễn Ái Quốc, was a Vietnamese Marxist-Leninist revolutionary leader who was prime minister and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam...
  
   (not to be confused with the Ho Chi Minh Prizes awarded by the Vietnamese government).
• Amilcar Cabral Award, established in 1973 in honour of Amílcar Cabral
  Amílcar Cabral
  Amílcar Lopes da Costa Cabral was a Guinea-Bissauan and Cape Verdean agricultural engineer, writer, and a nationalist thinker and politician. Also known by his nom de guerre Abel Djassi, Cabral led the nationalist movement of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde Islands and the ensuing war of independence...
  
  , for contributions to "the struggle against imperialism
  Imperialism
  Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
  
   and colonialism
  Colonialism
  Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
  
  ". (The Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau governments also award Amilcar Cabral prizes.)

The WPC was dominated by the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 during the Cold War

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

. Many winners of its prizes have also won the Lenin Peace Prize

Lenin Peace Prize

The International Lenin Peace Prize was the Soviet Union's equivalent to the Nobel Peace Prize, named in honor of Vladimir Lenin. It was awarded by a panel appointed by the Soviet government, to notable individuals whom the panel indicated had "strengthened peace among peoples"...

, a separate prize awarded by a panel appointed by the Soviet government.

List of award winners

Date	Awardee	Type	Country	Award	Notes	Refs
1950		Person	Czechoslovakia	Honorary International Peace Prize	Posthumous.
1950		Person	Spain	International Peace Prize
1950		Person	Chile	International Peace Prize
1950		Person	United States	International Peace Prize
1950		Person	Turkey	International Peace Prize
1950		Person	Poland	International Peace Prize	For her 1948 film Ostatni etap ("The Last Stage The Last Stage The Last Stage was a 1947 Polish feature film directed and co-written by Wanda Jakubowska, depicting her experiences in the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II... ")
1950		Person	Brazil	Gold Medal
1950		Person	France	Gold Medal
1950		Person	Romania	Gold Medal
1950		Person	Italy	Gold Medal
1950		Person	Czechoslovakia	Gold Medal
1950		Person	France	Gold Medal
1950	Al-Tariq	Work	Lebanon	Gold Medal	Journal.
1950	Iunost' mira (Юность мира, "Youth of the World")	Work	Soviet Union / Hungary	Gold Medal	Documentary about the 1949 World Youth Festival in Budapest.
1950	Warsaw Warsaw Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...	Place	Poland	Honorary International Peace Prize	An exceptional award to the city as "a symbol of peaceful restoration".
1953		Person	Bulgaria	Honorary International Peace Prize	Posthumous award.
1953		Person	Mexico	International Peace Prize	Member of the Comite por la Paz Mexicano
1953		Person	India	International Peace Prize
1953		Person	United States	International Peace Prize	Won the Lenin Peace Prize Lenin Peace Prize The International Lenin Peace Prize was the Soviet Union's equivalent to the Nobel Peace Prize, named in honor of Vladimir Lenin. It was awarded by a panel appointed by the Soviet government, to notable individuals whom the panel indicated had "strengthened peace among peoples"...  in 1959.
1953		Person	France	International Peace Prize
1953		Person	Iceland	International Peace Prize
1953		Person	Germany DR	International Peace Prize	For directing Das verurteilte Dorf Das verurteilte Dorf Das verurteilte Dorf is an East German propaganda film directed by Martin Hellberg. It was released in 1952.-Plot:... ("The condemned village").
1953		Person	Germany DR	International Peace Prize	For co-writing Das verurteilte Dorf ("The condemned village").
1953		Person	Germany DR	International Peace Prize	For co-writing Das verurteilte Dorf ("The condemned village").
1953		Person	France	Gold Medal
1953		Person	Czechoslovakia	Gold Medal
1953		Person	Australia	Gold Medal	For his novel The Diplomat The Diplomat (novel) The Diplomat is a 1949 novel by an Australian writer James Aldridge. The book tells the story of three British diplomats, while they set out for a journey, to get acquainted with the situation in Iranian Azerbaijan and Iranian Kurdistan at the brink of the Cold War.... .
1953		Person	Brazil	Gold Medal	For his orchestral work Canto de Amor e Paz.
1953		Person	Argentina	Gold Medal
1953		Person	Japan	Gold Medal	For Hiroshima panels
1953		Person	Japan	Gold Medal	For Hiroshima panels
1953		Person	Iran	Gold Medal
1953		Person	France	Gold Medal
1953		Person	Romania	Gold Medal	For sculpture "Korean partisans"
1953		Person	Venezuela	Gold Medal
1953		Person	Colombia	Gold Medal
1953		Person	Finland	Gold Medal	For statue entitled "Peace".
1954		Person	United Kingdom	International Peace Prize
1954		Person	Soviet Union	International Peace Prize
1955		Person	Hungary	Honorary International Peace Prize	Posthumous award
1955		Person	France	International Peace Prize
1955		Person	Netherlands	International Peace Prize
1955		Person	Italy	International Peace Prize
1955		Person	Brazil	International Peace Prize
1956		Person	France	Honorary International Peace Prize	Posthumous award
1956		Person	United States	International Peace Prize
1956		Person	China PR	International Peace Prize
1956		Person	Greece	International Peace Prize
1957		Person	United Kingdom	International Peace Prize	Refused award.
1957		Person	China PR	Joliot-Curie medal
?		Person	United States	International Peace Prize
1959		Person	Greece	Joliot-Curie gold medal
1959		Person	Goa	Gold medal	Posthumous award
1959	Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Organization	Organisation	International	Gold medal
1959	Mouvement de la Paix Mouvement de la Paix The Mouvement de la Paix is an organisation which promotes a culture of peace initiated by the United Nations. The movement was created in the aftermath of the Second World War by the large resistance movements, particularly those associated with communists, Christians and free-thinkers, and was...	Organisation	France	Gold medal
1959	Czechoslovak Peace Committee	Organisation	Czechoslovakia	Gold medal
1959		Person	Soviet Union	Gold medal
1959		Person	Romania	Gold medal
1959		Person	Lebanon	Gold medal
1959		Person	Chile	Gold medal
1959		Person	Canada	Gold medal
1959		Person	Soviet Union	silver medal
1959		Person	Soviet Union	Joliot-Curie silver medal
1959		Person	Soviet Union	Joliot-Curie silver medal
1959		Person	Soviet Union	Joliot-Curie silver medal
?		Person	Soviet Union	Silver medal
1959		Person	Australia	Medal
1959		Person	Soviet Union	Joliot-Curie silver medal
1959		Person	Australia	Joliot-Curie silver medal
1959		Person	India	Joliot-Curie silver medal
1959		Person	Soviet Union	Joliot-Curie silver medal
1959		Person	Cuba	Joliot-Curie silver medal
1960		Person	Italy	Gold medal
1960		Person	Germany FR	Gold medal
1960		Person	Germany FR	Gold medal
1960		Person	Germany FR	Gold medal
1960		Person	Germany FR	Jubilee Silver medal
1960		Person	Germany FR	Jubilee Silver medal
1960		Person	Germany FR	Jubilee Silver medal
1960		Person	Germany FR	Jubilee Silver medal
1960		Person	Soviet Union	Medal
1961		Person	Soviet Union	Gold medal	Marking his 70th birthday.
1961		Person	France	Gold medal	Marking her 80th birthday.
1961	World Federation of Democratic Youth World Federation of Democratic Youth The World Federation of Democratic Youth is a progressive youth organization, recognized by the United Nations as an international youth non-governmental organization. WFDY describes itself as an "anti-imperialist, left-wing" organisation...	Organisation	International	Gold medal
?	Political prisoners in Francoist Spain Spanish State Francoist Spain refers to a period of Spanish history between 1936 and 1975 when Spain was under the authoritarian dictatorship of Francisco Franco....	Persons	Spain	Gold medal
?		Person	Soviet Union	Grand Silver medal
?		Person	Soviet Union	Medal
?		Person	Mexico	Joliot-Curie medal
1963		Person	Greece	Gold medal
1963		Person	Greece	Gold medal	Posthumous award
1963		Person	Kenya	Gold medal
1964		Person	Spain	Gold medal	Posthumous award.
1964		Person	Iraq	Gold medal	Posthumous award.
1964		Person	Algeria	Gold medal	Posthumous award.
1964		Person	Hungary	Gold medal	Marking his 75th birthday.
1964		Person	Italy	Gold medal
1964		Person	Germany DR	Gold medal
1964		Person	Germany FR	Gold medal
1964		Person	Germany FR	Gold medal
1964		Person	United Kingdom	Gold medal
1964		Person	Poland	Gold medal
1964		Person	Cyprus	Gold medal
1964		Person	Argentina	Gold medal
1964		Person	Venezuela	Gold medal
1964		Person	France	Gold medal
1964		Person	Soviet Union / Poland	Gold medal
1964		Person	Soviet Union	Gold medal
1964		Person	Soviet Union	Gold medal
1964	Hiroshima Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It became best known as the first city in history to be destroyed by a nuclear weapon when the United States Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on it at 8:15 A.M...	Place	Japan	Gold medal
1964	Nagasaki Nagasaki is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Nagasaki was founded by the Portuguese in the second half of the 16th century on the site of a small fishing village, formerly part of Nishisonogi District...	Place	Japan	Gold medal
1964		Person	South Africa	Joliot-Curie gold medal
1964		Person	Poland	Joliot-Curie gold medal
1965		Person	Egypt	Gold medal
1965		Person	Sudan	Gold medal
1965		Person	Australia	Joliot-Curie gold medal
1965		Person	Australia	Joliot-Curie gold medal
1966		Person	Soviet Union	Joliot-Curie gold medal
1966		Person	Angola	Joliot-Curie medal
1966		Person	Cuba	Joliot-Curie gold medal
1968		Person	Chile	Joliot-Curie gold medal
1969		Person	Hungary	Joliot-Curie medal
1969		Person	Mongolia	Joliot-Curie medal
1969		Person	United Kingdom	Joliot-Curie medal
1969		Person	Peru	Joliot-Curie medal	Posthumous award.
1970		Person	India	Joliot-Curie medal	Posthumous award.
1971		Person	United States	Joliot-Curie gold medal	Posthumous award, accepted by Ralph Abernathy Ralph Abernathy Ralph David Abernathy, Sr. was a leader of the American Civil Rights Movement, a minister, and a close associate of Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Following King's assassination, Dr. Abernathy took up the leadership of the SCLC Poor People's Campaign and...  of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference Southern Christian Leadership Conference The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is an African-American civil rights organization. SCLC was closely associated with its first president, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr... .
1971	Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum is a memorial and museum in Oświęcim, Poland , which includes the German concentration camps Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau. It is devoted to the memory of the murders in both camps during World War II...	Organisation	Poland	Joliot-Curie gold medal
1972		Person	Guinea-Bissau / Cape Verde	Joliot-Curie medal
1972		Person	Cuba	Joliot-Curie gold medal
1972		Person	Mongolia	Joliot-Curie gold medal
1972		Person	Egypt	Joliot-Curie medal	Posthumous award.
1972		Person	Chile	Joliot-Curie gold medal
1972	Coalition for Peace and Justice	Organisation	United States	Joliot-Curie medal
1972	Organization of African Unity	Organisation	International	Joliot-Curie medal
1972	"the people of Lao fighting for independence and freedom"	Place	Laos	Joliot-Curie medal
1973		Person	Belgium	Joliot-Curie gold medal
1973		Person	Bangladesh	Joliot-Curie medal
1974		Person	Poland	Joliot-Curie gold medal
1975		Person	Finland	Joliot-Curie gold medal
1975		Person	Palestine	Joliot-Curie gold medal
1975		Person	Cyprus	Joliot-Curie gold medal
1975	Government of North Vietnam North Vietnam The Democratic Republic of Vietnam , was a communist state that ruled the northern half of Vietnam from 1954 until 1976 following the Geneva Conference and laid claim to all of Vietnam from 1945 to 1954 during the First Indochina War, during which they controlled pockets of territory throughout...	Organisation	Vietnam DR	Joliot-Curie gold medal
1975	Government of South Vietnam South Vietnam South Vietnam was a state which governed southern Vietnam until 1975. It received international recognition in 1950 as the "State of Vietnam" and later as the "Republic of Vietnam" . Its capital was Saigon...	Organisation	Vietnam Rep	Joliot-Curie gold medal
1975	United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid	Organisation	International	Joliot-Curie gold medal
1975	United Nations Special Committee on Decolonisation	Organisation	International	Joliot-Curie gold medal
1975		Person	Soviet Union	Joliot-Curie gold medal	Considered a riposte to Andrei Sakharov Andrei Sakharov Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident and human rights activist. He earned renown as the designer of the Soviet Union's Third Idea, a codename for Soviet development of thermonuclear weapons. Sakharov was an advocate of civil liberties and civil reforms in the... 's 1975 Nobel Peace Prize Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who... .
1976		Person	Mozambique	Joliot-Curie gold medal
1977	Vietnam Vietnam Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...	Place	Vietnam	Joliot-Curie medal	Presented to Nguyễn Hữu Thọ. The Vietnamese government had earlier awarded the WPC its Friendship Order.
1977	World Marxist Review	Work	Czechoslovakia
1977		Person	Romania	Joliot-Curie medal	The award was delayed by Soviet objections, but pushed through by Indira Gandhi Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhara was an Indian politician who served as the third Prime Minister of India for three consecutive terms and a fourth term . She was assassinated by Sikh extremists... .
1978		Person	Ethiopia	Joliot-Curie gold medal
1979		Person	Jamaica	Joliot-Curie gold medal
1980		Person	Kampuchea	Joliot-Curie medal
1980		Person	Palestine	Ho Chi Minh award
1980		Person	Cuba	Medal
1981	Sandinista National Liberation Front Sandinista National Liberation Front The Sandinista National Liberation Front is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas in both English and Spanish...	Organisation	Nicaragua	Ho Chi Minh award
1981		Person	Uruguay	Joliot-Curie gold medal
1983		Person	India	Joliot-Curie gold medal	Director of the UN Centre against Apartheid
1983		Person	Nigeria	Joliot-Curie gold medal	Chairman of the UN Special Committee against Apartheid
1985		Person	United States	Joliot-Curie gold medal
1986	African National Congress African National Congress The African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...	Organisation	South Africa	Ho Chi Minh award	Accepted by Oliver Tambo Oliver Tambo Oliver Reginald Tambo was a South African anti-apartheid politician and a central figure in the African National Congress .-Biography:Oliver Tambo was born in Bizana in eastern Pondoland in what is now Eastern Cape... .
1986		Person	Namibia	Ho Chi Minh award
1986	Bratislava Bratislava Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...	Place	Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...	Town of Peace
1988		Person	Tanzania	Joliot-Curie medal
1988		Person	Soviet Union	Joliot-Curie gold medal
1989		Person	Nicaragua	Joliot-Curie gold medal
?		Person	Jamaica	Joliot-Curie medal
2009		Person	Egypt Egypt Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...		Wife of Hosni Mubarak Hosni Mubarak Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak is a former Egyptian politician and military commander. He served as the fourth President of Egypt from 1981 to 2011....

In 2002, the WPC denied news reports that it had given a prize to Meles Zenawi

Meles Zenawi

Meles Zenawi Asres is the Prime Minister of Ethiopia. Since 1985, he has been chairman of the Tigrayan Peoples' Liberation Front , and is currently head of the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front .Meles was born in Adwa, Tigray in Northern Ethiopia, to an Ethiopian father from...

.