This is a comprehensive list of awards, honours and other recognitions bestowed on Nelson Mandela. Mandela received more than 260 awards over 40 years, most notably the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. From 1994 to 1999, Mandela was President of South Africa. He was the first such African to be elected in fully representative democratic polls. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist and leader of the African National Congress and its armed wing Umkhonto we Sizwe. He spent 27 years in prison, much of it in a cell on Robben Island. The rest of his incarceration was in Pollsmoor Prison, on convictions for crimes that included sabotage committed while he spearheaded the struggle against apartheid. Following his release from prison on 11 February 1990, his advocacy of a policy of reconciliation and negotiation helped lead the transition to multi-racial democracy in South Africa. Since the end of apartheid, he was widely praised, even by former opponents. Mandela died on 5 December 2013, a celebrated elder statesman who continued to voice his opinion on topical issues. In South Africa he is often known as Madiba, an aristocratic title adopted by the elderly members of the royal clan that he belongs to. This title has come to be synonymous with Nelson Mandela.

1960s

1970s

1981

1983

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1993

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2018

On 24 September 2018, Heads of State and Government and representatives of States and Governments, met at United Nations Headquarters in New York, at the "Nelson Mandela Peace Summit" to reflect on global peace, in honour of the centenary of the birth of Nelson Mandela and to collectively hold themselves accountable to the values and principles of the declaration drafted and agreed upon at the summit, to strive for a just, peaceful, prosperous, democratic, fair, equitable and inclusive world. The world leaders called upon their people to celebrate the richness of our diversity and the collective creativity and wisdom of our elders, and the well-being and survival of Mother Earth, and called upon their youth, artists, sports personalities, musicians and poets to breathe new life into the values and principles of the United Nations and recognize the period from 2019 to 2028 as the Nelson Mandela Decade of Peace.

2019 to 2028

The UN Nelson Mandela Decade of Peace, an intergovernmental honour.

Summary of orders received

Coat of arms