Jimmy Carter, former US president and tireless rights advocate, dies aged 100 – latest updates

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The Carter Center, a humanitarian non-governmental organization founded by Jimmy Carter, has publicized a tribute website for Carter including a condolence book and biographical details about the late president. The Carter Center has announced that it will provide information about funeral services shortly.

Carter was the subject of thousands of photographs due to his long life dedicated to public service in one way or another. Here are some of the most striking images from a decades-long career:

Jimmy Carter waves to the crowd while walking with his wife Rosalynn along Pennsylvania Avenue following his inauguration in Washington, in 1977. Photograph: Suzanne Vlamis/AP

Left to right: Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, US president Jimmy Carter and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin join hands after the Camp David Accords in September 1978. Photograph: David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images

Jimmy Carter in Atlanta in 1970, announcing his candidacy or governor. In the background, his wife Rosalynn holds two-year-old daughter Amy. Photograph: Charles Kelly/AP

Jimmy Carter and then senator Joe Biden at a fundraising reception in Wilmington, Delaware. Photograph: Barry Thumma/AP

Rev Jessie Jackson attends an Oval Office meeting with Jimmy Carter in 1979. Photograph: Afro Newspaper/Gado/Getty Images

From left to right: George HW Bush, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, and Richard Nixon in Simi Valley, California, at the dedication of the Ronald Reagan library in 1991. Photograph: David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images

Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn attach siding to the front of a Habitat for Humanity home in 2003. The former president and his wife were known for their hands-on humanitarian work. Photograph: Erik S Lesser/Getty Images

Carter is survived by his children, Jack, Chip, Jeff and Amy; 11 grandchildren; and 14 great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife of 77 years, Rosalynn Smith Carter and one grandchild.

“My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love,” said Chip Carter, the former president’s son, in a statement.

“My brothers, sister, and I shared him with the rest of the world through these common beliefs. The world is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honoring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs.”

Broadly unpopular after losing to Ronald Reagan in 1980, Carter went on to have one of the most distinguished post-presidential careers. He was awarded the Nobel peace prize for “decades of untiring effort” for human rights and peacemaking. His humanitarian work was conducted under the Atlanta-based Carter Center, which he founded in the early 1980s, with his wife Rosalynn.

Carter traveled the world as a peace emissary, election observer and public health advocate. He made visits to North Korea in 1994 and Cuba in 2002. The Carter Center is credited with helping to cure river blindness, trachoma and Guinea worm disease, which went from millions of cases in Africa and Asia in 1986 to a handful today.

Carter was a critic of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, drone warfare, warrantless government surveillance and the prison at Guantánamo Bay. He won admiration, and loathing, for his involvement in efforts for Middle East peace, urging a two-state solution in speeches and books including Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.

Carter took office in 1977 after serving just one term as governor of Georgia.

His unfamiliarity with Washington was seen as a virtue after the Watergate scandal and Vietnam war years. And his time in office started off with some early successes.

In 1977 Carter completed a treaty that returned control of the Panama Canal to Panama – an agreement that had eluded his predecessors.

In 1978, Carter facilitated Camp David talks between the then Israeli prime minister, Menachem Begin, and the Egyptian president, Anwar Sadat, that led to a peace deal between the two countries.

But his presidency ultimately became riddled with economic and foreign policy crises, starting with high unemployment and double-digit inflation and culminating in the Iran hostage crisis and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. A rolling energy crisis saw the price of oil triple from 1978 to 1980, leading to lines at US gas stations.

Jimmy Carter, who was a tireless advocate for global health and human rights, was the longest-lived president in US history. He only served one term in the White House after being beaten by Ronald Reagan in 1981.

But Carter spent the decades afterward focused on international relations and human rights, efforts that won him the Nobel peace prize in 2002.

Carter’s death comes after his wife, Rosalynn Carter passed away in November 2023 at the age of 96.

Jimmy Carter, former US president and rights advocate, dies at 100

Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States, a broker of peace in the Middle East in his time, and a tireless advocate for global health and human rights, has died, it was announced Sunday. He was 100 years old.

A Georgia Democrat, Carter was the longest-lived president in US history. He only served one term in the White House and was soundly beaten by Ronald Reagan in 1981. But Carter spent the decades afterward focused on international relations and human rights, efforts that won him the Nobel peace prize in 2002.