Mr. Samuel Lobato

“Peace is the will of God, a gift from God, therefore peace is at the core of God’s Good News to the World. All the religions have the privilege and unique challenge to make this Gift closer to the Human kind.”
-SAMUEL LOBATO

Samuel Lobato is a well-known and influential leader with 23 years of ecumenical experience in organizing grassroots groups for social participation, community rural development, human rights defense and leadership development in civil society. He works passionately with victims of internal armed conflicts – refugees, displaced persons, orphans, widows, relatives of disappeared persons and war-crippled persons – and builds and promotes trust in highly polarized environments. Mr. Lobato is the Executive Director of Grupo Dos Colombia, where he spearheads the development of autonomous initiatives that strengthen ethnic communities in the exercise of their cultural, territorial and political rights.

Mr. Lobato was born in Mexico in 1956. As a child, he was actively involved in church groups and studied at Seminary to become a Roman Catholic priest. In 1975, he received his Bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Seminario Palafoxiano de Puebla. Five years later, Mr. Lobato earned his Bachelor’s degree in political and social sciences from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

Between 1973 and 1986, Mr. Lobato led several youth groups in various capacities, including as Executive Secretary of the World Student Christian Federation for Latin America and the Caribbean. As Executive Secretary, he worked in 12 countries in the region, promoting leadership development among university students. He also designed international youth leadership programs and organized international exchanges.

From 1987 to 2007, Mr. Lobato served the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA and the Church World Service, first as Regional Representative for Central America and Mexico, and then later as the representative for Columbia. Mr. Lobato fought tirelessly against forced displacement and advanced rural development, environmental protection and human rights. Against the backdrop of ongoing armed conflict, he is renowned for his work to develop peace initiatives through church and ecumenical organizations, in close contact with networks and coalitions in civil society.

In El Salvador, he concentrated on defending the right of churches to carry out humanitarian work in conflict zones, and in Guatemala he worked to develop intra-religious dialogue in the framework of peace negotiations between the Guatemalan government and armed opposition groups. More recently, Mr. Lobato implemented a pilot initiative for responsible mining in Afro-Colombian territory (artisanal and small-scale gold-mining free of mercury and cyanide) as a way to improve the quality of life, preserve the environment and avoid the forced displacement that occurs in situations when the interests of big companies clash with those of small-scale miners.

Mr. Lobato is a prolific writer and revered communicator; he has been a featured speaker at conferences, seminars and symposia in more than 35 countries over the last three decades. He was invited to join the Niwano Peace Prize Selection Committee in 2007, in recognition of his work on developing peace processes in Central America.