The former president of South Africa, Mr Nelson Mandela, is to receive an honorary degree from the National University of Ireland (NUI).
The Law degree will be conferred on Mr Mandela by NUI Chancellor, Dr Garret FitzGerald on June 20th in Galway, it was announced today.
Mr Mandela will be presented with the citation by the President of NUI, Galway, Dr Iognáid Ó Muircheartaigh.
He is to be conferred with the honorary degree for his tireless work for a better and peaceful world.
Mr Mandela became the first black president in a post-apartheid South Africa in 1994, after spending almost 28 years in prison.
An outspoken critic of racism and war, he has been heavily involved with many humanitarian organisations.
In recent weeks he has been a vociferous critic of the war in Iraq. "One power with a president who has no foresight and cannot think properly, is now wanting to plunge the world into a holocaust. Why is the United States behaving so arrogantly? All that [Mr Bush] wants is Iraqi oil," he is quoted as saying.