H.E. Dame Marcella Liburd Renders Distinguished Service as Eminent Person to Select the 2025 United Nations Nelson Mandela Prize Laureates

United Nations, New York (2 June 2025) – The Permanent Mission of St. Kitts and
Nevis to the United Nations, representing the Group of Latin American and Caribbean
States, was among a group of five distinguished UN Member States that worked to
select the laureates of the 2025 United Nations Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela Prize. 
The Selection Committee comprised Philemon Yang, the President of the UN General
Assembly and Permanent Representatives from Bahrein, Poland, Finland, Egypt, South
Africa and St. Kitts and Nevis.  The group was aided by an Eminent Persons Group
whose guidance, experience and expertise helped ensure the highest caliber of
laureates. 

The United Nations Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela Prize aims to recognize the
achievements of those who dedicated their lives to the service of humanity as guided by
the purposes and principles of the UN, while honouring and paying homage to
Mandela’s extraordinary life and legacy of reconciliation, political transition and social
transformation. It is awarded every five years and was first awarded in 2015.  
The laureates of the 2025 United Nations Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela Prize are Brenda
Reynolds, a social worker of Saulteaux heritage supporting the health and well-being of
Indigenous communities in Canada, and Kennedy Odede, founder and CEO of Shining
Hope for Communities, a Kenyan grassroots organization providing services to urban
slums. 

Secretary-General António Guterres will award the honorary prizes, alongside the
President of the seventy-ninth session of the General Assembly, Philemon Yang, as part
of the annual commemoration marking Nelson Mandela International Day on 18 July
under the theme of “It’s still in our hands to combat poverty and in equality”. 
H.E. Dr. Mutryce Williams, Permanent Representative to the United Nations expressed
her honour in serving by stating, “we now inhabit a world at war and with widening
inequality. Nelson Mandela’s legacy is one of peace, reconciliation, inclusion and
dialogue and it is fitting that St. Kitts and Nevis was asked to honour that legacy,
particularly as the Federation, though still a young independence nation has long been
at the vanguard of fight for justice and human rights.” 
  
Her Excellency Marcella Liburd in commenting on the invitation to serve the United
Nations underlined that, “St. Kitts and Nevis’ own national anthem calls for us to be
stalwarts of peace and justice and our role in this selection is congruent with the work
that Ambassador Williams and hear team at the United Nations are doing to ensure St.
Kitts and Nevis makes it mark as a consistent champion of dialogue, diplomacy and
peace. Nelson Mandela’s story is one that transcends geography and time and his
vision for a better world – a just world – is needed now more than ever.” 

The winners were selected from 331 nominations received for candidates in 66 Member
States. 
The Selection Committee was aided by the Office of the President of the General
Assembly, the UN’s Global Communications Team and as well as by Deputies of
respective UN missions, including Eustace T. Wallace, Minister Counselor for St. Kitts
and Nevis’ Permanent Mission to the UN.
 
Selection Committee 

In accordance with Article 4 (1) of the Statute, the Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela
Prize recipients are selected by a selection committee.  In 2025, the Committee
was comprised of: 

Chair of the Committee 
Philemon Yang, President of United Nations General Assembly’s seventy-ninth
session; 
African Group 
Osama Mahmoud Abdelkhalek Mahmoud, Permanent Representative of Egypt to
the United Nations; 
Asia-Pacific Group 

Jamal Fares Alrowaiei, Permanent Representative of Bahrain to the United Nations; 
Eastern European Group 

Krzysztof Maria Szczerski, Permanent Representative of Poland to the United
Nations; 

Latin American and Caribbean Group 
Mutryce Agatha Williams, Permanent Representative of Saint Kitts and Nevis to the
United Nations; 

Western European Group and other States 
Elina Kalkku, Permanent Representative of Finland to the United Nations; and 
Ex-officio member of the Committee 
Mathu Joyini, Permanent Representative of South Africa to the United Nations. 
 
In accordance with Article 4 (2) of the Statute, the following four Eminent
Individuals were selected to serve as honorary members of the Committee in an
advisory capacity: 

Marcella A. Liburd, Governor General of the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis; 
Tarja Halonen, former President of Finland; 

Mohamed Mostafa ElBaradei, Nobel Laureate, former Vice President of Egypt
and Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); and 

Elżbieta Mikos-Skuza, senior lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of Warsaw
Poland