1987 Nobel Peace Laureate
President of Costa Rica 1986-1990
Oscar Arias, former president of Costa Rica and 1987 Nobel Peace laureate, holds international stature as a spokesperson for the Third World. Championing such issues as human development, democracy, and demilitarization, he has traveled the globe spreading a message of peace and applying the lessons garnered from the Central American Peace Process to topics of current global debate. The New York Times reported that Oscar Arias' "...positions on Central American issues have become the standards by which many people in Congress and elsewhere have come to judge United States policy." In a similar way, he has come to take a leading position in international discourse.Dr. Arias was born in Heredia, Costa Rica in 1940. He studied Law and Economics at the University of Costa Rica. His thesis, Grupos de Presión en Costa Rica (Pressure Groups in Costa Rica) earned him the 1971 National Essay Prize. In 1974, he received a doctoral degree in Political Science at the University of Essex, England. After serving as Professor of Political Science at the University of Costa Rica, Dr. Arias was appointed Costa Rican Minister of Planning and Economic Policy. He won a seat in Congress in 1978 and was elected secretary-general of the National Liberation Party in 1981. In 1986, Oscar Arias was elected president of Costa Rica.
Dr. Arias assumed office at a time of great regional discord. The fall of the Somoza dictatorship in 1979 and the introduction of the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua had already been a source of contention in Central America. The ideological and military interference of the superpowers, still entrenched in the Cold War, threatened to broaden this conflict in both scope and definition. Such intervention heightened the state of civil war that had by then claimed more than one hundred thousand lives in Guatemala. It aggravated internal unrest in El Salvador and Nicaragua, as well as border tensions between Nicaragua and its neighboring states: Honduras and Costa Rica. Despite the previous presidential administration's decision not to become embroiled in the growing conflict, Costa Rica's involvement seemed almost unavoidable. In the face of these threats, Arias intensified his efforts to promote peace.
Even before assuming the presidency, Arias traveled throughout Central and South America to personally invite the Latin American heads of state to visit Costa Rica for his presidential inauguration. On the day he took office, the presidents of nine Latin American countries met in San José. In this meeting Arias called for a continental alliance for the defense of democracy and liberty. He affirmed that all Central Americans were entitled to the same liberties and social and economic guarantees of democracy, that each nation had the right to select, through free and fair elections, the type of government that could best meet the needs and interests of its people, and that neither armies nor totalitarian regimes were entitled to make this decision. At that moment Costa Rica, led by Oscar Arias, assumed an active role in the search for democracy and peace for the countries of the region.
In 1987, President Arias drafted a peace plan to end the regional crisis. Widely recognized as the Arias Peace Plan, his initiative culminated in the signing of the Esquipulas II Accords, or the Procedure to Establish a Firm and Lasting Peace in Central America, by all the Central American presidents on August 7, 1987. In that same year he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1988, Arias used the monetary award from the Nobel Peace Prize to establish the Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress. Under the auspices of the Foundation, three programs were established: The Center for Human Progress to promote equal opportunities for women and gender equality; the Center for Organized Participation to strengthen the participation and action of civil society in Central America; and the Center for Peace and Reconciliation to work for demilitarization and conflict resolution in the developing world. From these headquarters, Dr. Arias has continued his pursuit of global peace and human security.
Dr. Arias has received honorary doctorates from universities such as Harvard, Washington, Illinois, Oviedo, Franklin and Marshall, and Southern Connecticut; the colleges of Dartmouth, Ithaca, and Quinnipiac; and several other prestigious educational institutions. He has also received numerous prizes, among them the Jackson Ralston Prize, the Prince of Asturias Award, the Martin Luther King Jr. Peace Award, the Albert Schweitzer Humanitarian Award, the Liberty Medal of Philadelphia, and the Americas Award.
Oscar Arias participates actively in several international organizations. He is the president of the International Press Service (IPS), and serves on the Board of Directors of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the International Center for Human Rights and Democratic Development (ICHRDD), and the Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. Dr. Arias also serves on the Board for the Inter Action Council, the International Negotiation Network of the Carter Center, and Transparency International. In addition, he is an active member of the Commission on Global Governance, the Inter-American Dialogue, and the Society for International Development.
While Oscar Arias is best known for his international efforts, he was also lauded for his very capable management of the Costa Rican economy during his presidential term. Arias believed in minimal government intervention and bureaucracy as a means to a prosperous economy. Under his leadership, Costa Rica's economy thrived and served as a model for neighboring countries. During his term of office, Costa Rica maintained its stronghold as the richest country in the region, with the healthiest economy and highest standard of living. The gross national product increased by an average of 5% during his term in office, and the unemployment rate of 3.4% was the lowest in the hemisphere. This superior economic growth was balanced by a strong social welfare program which included, among other projects, an initiative to provide housing to the poor.
Dr. Arias was a visible president, frequently venturing out in public on his own to listen to the concerns of the citizenry. Since the conclusion of his term of office in 1990, he has continued to be "a man of the people" promoting such innovative ideas as human security, human development, and global governance. By bringing human concerns to the forefront of the international agenda, he provides a crucial link between the impoverished South and the developed North, between the more politically stable West and a conflict-ridden East. To the people of industrialized countries, he carries a sincere message of solidarity and partnership, in order to initiate a new era of peace and prosperity for all humankind.
An unequivocal example of this solidarity is shown in Dr. Arias' commitment to curtail the global arms trade. On May 29, he met with 7 other Nobel Peace laureates -- Elie Wiesel, the Dalai Lama, José Ramos-Horta, Betty Williams, and the directors of American Friends Service Committee, Amnesty International and International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War -- to publicly unveil an International Code of Conduct on Arms Transfers.
Dr. Arias' proposal stipulates that any country wishing to purchase arms must meet certain criteria, including the promotion of democracy, the protection of human rights, and transparency in military spending. It would also prohibit arms sales to nations that support terrorism and to states that are engaged in aggression against other nations or peoples. Current initiatives to restrict arms sales in the United States and the European Union represent a first step toward Dr. Arias' mission for peace.
In addition to the Code, Dr. Arias encourages preventive diplomacy to avert regional arms races and conflict. He strongly advocates the Year 2000 Campaign to Redirect World Military Spending to Human Development, which calls upon the United Nations to send special envoys to different sites of potential international conflict.
Furthermore, Dr. Arias recently proposed to all Heads of State in the hemisphere that they endorse a two-year moratorium on the purchase of high-tech weapons. To date, 24 leaders have agreed to this moratorium. This measure would extend the reach of an existing treaty that made Latin America the world's first nuclear-free zone.
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