'Change the world': Nobel Laureates gather in Dubai, call for peace and climate action

Khaleej Times

14-04-2025

'We did not have weapons nor did we have power. But we had unity, and that was enough,' said Lech Wałęsa, a Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1983 and former president of Poland.
He addressed the audience during the Global Justice, Love, and Peace Summit, which concluded on Sunday with the release of A Love Letter to Humanity.
Wałęsa, once an electrician at the Gdańsk Shipyard, played a pivotal role in leading a peaceful revolution that reshaped the course of European history. Addressing a global audience, he emphasised that meaningful change doesn't stem from dominance or force—it comes from ordinary people standing together with a shared purpose.
He was one of 12 Nobel Peace Prize winners who gathered for the two-day summit at the Dubai Exhibition Centre in Expo City. The event brought together voices from across the globe: freedom fighters, climate scientists, human rights advocates, and youth leaders—all united in their vision for a better future.
'I wasn't a politician. I was just a worker,' Wałęsa recalled. 'In the 1950s, we tried to fight injustice, but we failed. We tried again in the '60s and '70s, still to no avail. We were up against something massive. But eventually, we figured it out. The answer was solidarity. We became one, and we kept quiet about what we were building — until it was too powerful to be torn down.'
With a firm voice, he directed his message to the younger generation: 'If you believe in justice and work together with love in your heart, you can change your country. Maybe even change the world.'
Wałęsa's message of courage and unity echoed in the words of fellow laureate Kailash Satyarthi, a lifelong advocate against child labour and trafficking. 'When I received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, I called it a love letter to humanity,' he said. 'To me, compassion is not just a feeling—it's kindness in action.'
Satyarthi recounted the harrowing stories of children he rescued from factories, stone quarries, and trafficking networks. 'Some of my colleagues were killed. I was attacked and left with injuries; I still bear the scars. But I'm alive, and I keep going — because these children are our children, and they deserve better.'
He reflected on a powerful moment in 1998, when the world united for a cause. 'We led a global march across 103 countries. It lasted six months, and over a million people joined. We walked until the world listened. Today, international laws exist to protect children—but the fight is far from over. There are still millions of kids who are invisible to the world.'
The summit also turned its focus to another urgent issue — our planet. Dr Mohan Munasinghe, a Nobel laureate and former vice-chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), addressed the climate crisis with a clear message.
'Human beings are the cause of climate change,' he said. 'And we will also be the ones who suffer the most because of it."
'I want to apologise to the next generation. We are leaving you a world that is damaged, divided, and dangerous. I am sorry we let it come to this.'
Still, he offered hope. Dr Munasinghe expressed faith in the youth to lead the way forward—if they learn from the past. 'Don't repeat our mistakes. Don't ignore science,' he urged.
He pointed to a practical path ahead: supporting the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, which he called humanity's final opportunity to right its course.
'There is so much inequality. The richest people on Earth consume a hundred times more than the poorest. It's not fair. The more we destroy the planet's resources, the more we will fight over what is left. If we want peace, we must first find peace within ourselves.'