In February 2012 four Elders travelled to Bihar, India, to meet a group of young people campaigning to stop child marriage. After listening to the teenage girls and boys, Desmond Tutu, Ela Bhatt, Gro Brundtland and Mary Robinson raised the issue with Bihar's Chief Minister, urging him to support the growing movement to end this harmful practice.
During their trip to the Middle East in October 2010, the Elders visited East Jerusalem where they met Palestinian residents and joined a weekly demonstration in Sheikh Jarrah.
At the start of their October 2010 visit to the Middle East, Mary Robinson, Ela Bhatt and Lakhdar Brahimi spent a day in the blockaded Gaza strip. A ban by Israel and Egypt prohibits the import of building materials and severely restricts the movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza. The Elders say the blockade is illegal, unconscionable and counterproductive – and call for it to be lifted immediately.
"Non-violence is the only way of cleansing society of the tiredness, brutalisation and despondency it has been forced into." Ela Bhatt
During their first visit to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory in August 2009, the Elders visit peaceful protestors in the West Bank village of Bil'in, a Palestinian family living on the pavement after being evicted from their Jerusalem home, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.
On the second day of their visit to the Middle East in August 2009, The Elders meet Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salaam Fayad. They also cross into the West Bank, where they meet women from the Qalandia refugee camp and listen to the concerns of young Palestinians.
The Elders' first day in the Middle East, proved to be moving, thought-provoking, frank and inspirational as they met a diverse group of Israeli citizens and heard a wide range of thoughts and perspectives
