Nobel Laureate Martti Ahtisaari has joined The Elders, replacing Muhammud Yunus who has stepped down due to the demands of his work. According to Mr. Ahtisaari, "Peace is a question of will. All conflicts can be settled, and it is
intolerable that violent conflicts defy resolution for decades, causing
immeasurable human suffering.

Martti Ahtisaari was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in December 2008 for his efforts on several continents and for more than 3 decades to resolve international conflicts. Before holding the presidency of Finland from 1994 to 2000, he  had a distinguished career with the United Nations and the Finnish Foreign Ministry, including several roles in Namibia, Chair of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Working Group of the International Conference on the former Yugoslavia and the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for the former Yugoslavia. 

Mr. Ahtisaari’s commitment to peace has led him to: facilitate the peace process that ended 30 years of conflict between the
Government of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement, inspect Irish Republican
Army’s arms dumps, chair an independent panel on the security and safety of UN personnel
in Iraq, and serve as Special Envoy of
the UN Secretary-General for the future status process for Kosovo, among others. He founded and continues to chair Crisis Management Initiative
(CMI) to help the
international community practice more effective preventive
diplomacy, peacemaking and post-conflict state building.  

Source: The Elders New Year Message