Jose Ramos-Horta, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and former President of Timor-Leste, was chosen by the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation and Uppsala University to deliver the 2015 Dag Hammarskjöld Lecture for his outstanding efforts – that have spanned decades and continue today – to promote peaceful solutions to conflict, at the national and at the international level, and to strengthen the United Nations’ work on peace and security.
Ramos-Horta delivered the lecture on the topic “Preventing conflicts, Building Durable Peace.” He elaborated on four essential shifts that must be embraced in the future design and delivery of UN peace operations. He also emphasised that there are no shortcuts to peace and to sustainable and equitable development, and that the eradication of extreme poverty is a moral imperative for all and crucial for the attainment of durable peace.