On 8 October 2016, Pugwash President Jayantha Dhanapala and Secretary General Paolo Cotta-Ramusino issued a statement on the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize award:
On behalf of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs we would like to congratulate President Juan Manuel Santos, winner of the 2016 Nobel Peace prize, for having promoted and carried on the peace process in Colombia. It is a remarkable achievement to have made peace with a group of insurgents that has been active for years inside the country. We hope that this example will be followed by other countries where the presence of insurgent groups is both relevant and difficult to deal with.
Coming to the table to forge peace takes courage from all sides, and we also commend the FARC leaders for this significant achievement. With continued determination on all sides to get past recent setbacks, and ongoing engagement with civil society, we hope the forward momentum can be maintained and translated into a lasting peace.
Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs 