Three women win the Nobel Peace Prize: What this means for women peacebuilders | No Women No Peace

Three women win the Nobel Peace Prize: What this means for women peacebuilders

This past week has been full of media discussion on the important role of women peace builders, specifically due to both the ten year anniversary of military intervention in Afghanistan, and the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to three women.

The Nobel Peace Prize has been jointly awarded to Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee, and Yemeni pro-democracy figure Tawakul Karman. These women have been recognised for their "non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work".

We welcome this award, which acts as a recognition of the power and potential of women peacebuilders and helps to raise the profile of the contributions that women have made in the areas of peace, reconciliation and democratisation.

Just days later, however, Amnesty International reported that women's groups have been attacked in Yemen while celebrating the ground-breaking win, demonstrating the huge obstacles faced by activists and the bravery required to stand up for peace and human rights.

This Nobel Peace Prize announcement is a significant move to raise the profile of women's roles in peace and reconciliation, and it specifically mentions UN Security Council resolution 1325.

Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director of UN Women, said of the award 

“For each of the three Nobel peace prize winners this year, there are thousands of women around the world, who persist in their pursuit of peace in spite of massive obstacles.”

 

Help us to keep this issue on the table by signing our petition or writing a letter to your MP to support Afghan women's rights and women's participation in peace talks.

Read this blog post from our member organisation Womankind on reactions to the awards announcement in Liberia.

Read this article by Gayle Lemmon on how these awards act as a call to action for the international community in Afghanistan.

Check out this BBC article and this openDemocracy article to find out more about the contributions that each of these women have made to women's rights and peacebuilding.

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added by Shelagh Daley 10.10.11