After losing the 1980 election to Ronald Reagan, Carter, along with his wife, founded the Carter Center in 1982. The Carter Center is a non-profit organization which is still active today and located in Atlanta, Georgia. The organization aims to promote democracy across the globe by monitoring elections to make sure they are both free and fair. The organization also has a focus on global health. For example, one of the organization's main focus is to eradicate or control diseases such as river blindness, lymphatic filariasis, trachoma, malaria, schistosomiasis, and Guinea Worm Disease. In addition to this another effort of the Carter Center is to diminish the stigma of mental illnesses.
The Carter Center has been successful in its aims. For instance, due to its work more than 99 percent of cases of Guinea Worm Disease have been eliminated. To put it in perspective, in 1986 there were 3.5 million cases of the disease. This number decreased to 148 in 2013, and twenty-three in 2015. In addition, the organization has monitored 96 elections in 38 different countries since 1989 and has also worked to resolve conflicts in Sudan, Haiti, North Korea, Ethiopia, Bosnia, and more.
Today, the Carter Center continues to work to promote peace around the world and advance human rights. Some of the main programs of the organization is the observation of elections in countries like Tunisia and Nepal, strengthening law and access to justice in post-conflict countries like Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and getting rid of corruption and advance citizen oversight of governments in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
Although some initially considered Carter’s Presidency a failure, his post presidency actions have led him to be considered one of the most successful ex-presidents in American History. Carter was even awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 because of his ability “to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights and to promote economic and social development”.
You blog was very insightful! I remember Mr. Stewart saying in class that although Carter was not a very popular president by the time he ran for reelection, he did accomplish a lot in the years after his presidency, including, like you mentioned, his achievement of the Nobel Peace Price in 2002. Aside from Carter, three other presidents have won the Nobel Peace Price: Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Barack Obama. In addition to this, ex-Vice President Al Gore also received the Nobel Peace Price in 2007 for his efforts to spread awareness for climate change.
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https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2014/12/10/day-history-four-presidents-and-vp-received-nobel-peace-prize