2010 Juliet Hollister Awards Ceremony Honoree
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond M. Tutu
The Most Reverend Desmond M. Tutu, Anglican Archbishop Emeritus of Capetown, South Africa was appointed Dean of St. Mary’s Cathedral in Johannesburg in 1975 as the first black to hold that position. In 1976 he was made Bishop of Lesotho and in 1978 he became the first black General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches. He served as the chairman of the Truth and econciliation Commission because of his role in the abolishment of South Africa’s Apartheid policy.
In 1984 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his “role as a unifying leader figure in the campaign to resolve the problem of apartheid in South Africa”. He was elected to the Board of Directors of the International Criminal Court’s Trust Fund for Victims in 2003 and was named a member of the United Nations advisory panel on genocide prevention in 2006. Desmond Tutu received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from U.S. President Barack Obama in 2009. He is being honored for his visionary leadership to ensure civil rights and religious freedom for all.