Mahatma Gandhi, Peace Award - 2026

Biography

Marta Lescano is a professor, educator, researcher and international leader committed to the promotion of peace education, human values, interculturality and sustainable development. She is currently President of Fundación FEPAIS in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Executive Director for Education of Global Peace Let’s Talk International, based in London, United Kingdom.

Her professional and institutional work is oriented towards social transformation through education, understood as an essential tool for fostering cohesion, positive coexistence and shared responsibility. Throughout her career, she has led educational initiatives in Latin America, Africa and Asia, promoting nonviolent ommunication, awareness of human interdependence and the constructive management of conflict.

Her work is based on the belief that education means not only transmitting knowledge, but also shaping people who are capable of living with responsibility, empathy, openness towards others and mutual respect. From this perspective, her pedagogical activity seeks to foster communities that are more aware, inclusive and oriented towards dialogue and reconciliation.

Her academic and professional background reflects the depth and breadth of her commitment. She is a Professor of Literature, holds a Master’s Degree in Education, and has been a researcher at the University of Buenos Aires. She has also completed a Diploma in Human Rights, a Diploma in Educational Neuroscience and Neurodidactics, and a certification in Social Innovation for Sustainable Development, undertaken within programmes connected to UNESCO and Learning by Helping. This interdisciplinary path has enabled her to integrate pedagogy, human rights, neuroscience and sustainability into a broad and innovative educational vision.

At the professional level, Marta Lescano also works as an international promoter of sustainable development, a community mediator and an educational consultant for organizations such as II-PE, UNESCO and school authorities.
She has also served as an external evaluator of educational projects at the “Joaquín V. González” Teacher Training Institute in Argentina. Her areas of expertise include emotional education, restorative justice, mediation and the design of educational programmes for individuals, communities and institutions. Her approach combines research, field experience and the ability to intervene effectively across different educational and social contexts.

Motivation

In recognition of her extraordinary commitment to the promotion of peace education, human values, nonviolent communication and positive coexistence, the Mahatma Gandhi Prize is awarded to Professor Marta Lescano, an educator, researcher and international leader who has devoted her work to building a culture founded on dialogue, empathy, mutual respect and shared responsability.

For her pedagogical, social and institutional work, developed across diverse cultural and geographical contexts, through which she has made education a concrete instrument of social transformation, capable of shaping individuals and communities committed to nonviolence, cohesion, restorative justice and the transformation of conflict into opportunities for growth and recon-ciliation.

For her educational vision and the leadership she has exercised at the international level, through which she authentically embodies the universal values inspired by Mahatma Gandhi: the dignity of the human person, the moral force of nonviolence, service to the community and the patient construction of more just, inclusive, sustainable and peaceful societies.