Nobel Peace Prize 2013: where are the past winners now? When the European Union received the Nobel Peace Prize last year Mr Perez Esquival criticised European countries for intervening in Libya in 2011. After the killing of Osama bin Laden Mr Perez Esquival wrote to Brack Obama questioning why Bin Laden was not tried in a court and suggesting that this was because he had information about September 11th that the United States did not want him to reveal. When Argentine Jorge Bergoglio was elected Pope Mr Pérez Esquivel assured that he "had no links with the dictatorship" that ruled Argentina between 1976 to 1983. Mairead Maguire Mairead Maguire became active with the Northern Ireland peace movement after her sister lost three children in a 1976 shooting incident in Belfast. The children were hit t by an Irish Republican Army getaway car after its driver was shot by a British soldier. Mrs Maguire organised peace demonstrations appealing for a nonviolent solution to the conflict as well as founding a peace movement. She won the Novel Peace Prize in 1976 along with Betty Williams and has continued to promote peace, both in Northern Ireland and around the world. In 2003 she was arrested in the United States after protesting against the Iraq war. She has strongly criticised Barack Obama for his militarism and occupation of Afghanistan. Together with Desmond Tutu and Adolpho Perez Esquivel, Maguire published a letter in support of Bradley Manning (now a woman called Chelsea). Maguire nominated her for the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize, saying "His incredible disclosure of secret documents to WikiLeaks helped end the Iraq War, and may have helped prevent further conflicts elsewhere." He has called for Israel's membership of the United Nations to be revoked and supports the Palestinians' right to self-determination. She has sailed a number of times on flotillas to bring humanitarian supplies to Gaza and attended to break the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the Gaza Strip. In 2010 she was detained on entering Israel and deported. Mikhail Gorbachev Former president of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in ending Cold War tensions. Then American President George Bush praised Mr Gorbachev for having brought "historically significant change, both political and economic, to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. In 1991 he agreed with Boris Yeltsin to dissolve the Soviet Union. Gorbachev resigned on 25 December and the Soviet Union was formally dissolved the following day. In 1996 Gorbachev ran for president of Russia but garnered less than 1 per cent of the vote. He has remained active in Russian politics as a member of various think tanks. He also runs a foundation for political, social and economic studies In 2006 he paired with Russian billionaire Aleksandr Lebedev to purchase nearly half of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta. In 2009 he announced a return to politics and met with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden in efforts to "reset" relations between Russia and the United States. Mr Gorbachev has been highly critical of Vladimir Putin and his retreat from democracy. In April he said that Russian politics "is increasingly turning into imitation democracy." Earlier this year he was hospitalised in Moscow for tests, amid growing concern over his health. In May a poll of Russians found that Gorbachev was the most disliked Russian leader of the 20th century. He is partly remembered as a rule for the economic chaos that marked the later stages of his time in office and he is blamed for the break up of the Soviet Union and Russia's loss of superpower status. Frederik Willem de Klerk FW de Klerk was the last State President of apartheid-era South Africa and made the groundbreaking decision to release Nelson Mandela, leader of the liberation movement, who had been in prison since 1963. De Klerk had been a firm upholder of white privilege as a member of the government and was not expected to end apartheid however he changed course radically when he realised it was putting the country on a course to economic and political bankruptcy. De Klerk and Mandela worked together to bring an end to the policy of racial segregation and were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 for "the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa." In 1994 de Klerk became deputy president in the government of national unity under Nelson Mandela until 1996. In 1997 he retired from politics and gave up his role as leader of the National Party Since his retirement from political life, he has delivered a multitude of lectures. He established the F.W. de Klerk Foundation in 2000 which helps to promote peace and the resolution of disputes. It also provides resources for disabled and underprivileged children. He also established the Global Leadership Foundation in 2004 which improve the quality of governance. In 2001 his ex-wife Marike de Klerk was found strangled to death in her Cape Town flat. In an interview in 2010 de Klerk said that Nelson Mandel was one of the "all-time greats" but that he also saw him being "unreasonable, unfair." Aged 77 he still refuses to give a full apology for the abuses carried out by the apartheid state. Earlier this year he was fitted with a pacemaker. Kofi Annan The 2001 Nobel Peace Prize award was jointly awarded to the United Nations and its then General Secretary Kofi Annan "for their work for a better organised and more peaceful world." In 2006 Mr Annan retired from his role and was suggested as a candidate to become Ghana's next President.Instead he took up positions at several bodies with a focus on Africa. In 2012 he was appointed as the UN-Arab League envoy to Syria, in an attempt to end the civil war. He wrote a six-point peace plan which was intended to bring an end to the fighting but it was never adhered to. Six months later he quit, frustrated by "finger-pointing" and "name calling" at the United Nations. He said that the lack of unity in the Security Council coupled with the increased militarisation of the conflict had led to his decision. In September 2012 Mr Annan published his memoir.