Nobel Peace Prize Winners 2011
Every year since 1901 the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the person “who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses”. The Nobel Peace Prize is an international award founded by Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel and is administered by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden. The committee that awards the Nobel Peace Prize winners consists of five members whom are selected by the Norwegian Parliament.
The Nobel Peace Prize of 2011 has been awarded jointly to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymay Gbowee, and Tawakkul Karman “for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work”. The Nobel Committee issued that it is impossible to achieve democracy and sustained democracy in this world if women are not granted the same opportunities as men to influence developments on all levels in our society.
Â
Source:Â the Nobel Prize website
Â
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
Ellen Johnson Sirleafis the first female elected President of Liberia in 2005. In 1980 Ellen went into exile to Kenya, but returned in 1985 to Liberia. During the 1985 elections she campaigned against Doe and was subsequently placed under house arrest and sentenced to ten years in prison for treason. Nevertheless, she was soon allowed to leave the country. Living through years of civil war and being exiled from her country several times, Ellen finally won the presidential elections in 2005. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf advocates for the rights of women and the importance of education to provide for a better future for the people of Liberia and the country itself. She has written extensively on issues regarding development and human rights issues.
Â
Leymay Gbowee
Leymay Gbowee is a peace activist from Liberia whom played a major role in ending the 14-year during Second Liberian Civil War in 2003. She mobilized many women across Liberia to call for an end to the war and succeeded in this by means of picketing, fasting and praying. Her peace movement helped to oust former dictator Charles Taylor out of power who is currently on trial in the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The end of the Civil War led to democratic elections in Liberia which resulted in a victory for current President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Leymay is currently executive director of the Ghana-based Women Peace and Security Network (WPSN), which is a pan-African women’s peace-building organization that supports women’s capacity to prevent, avert and end conflicts.
Â
Tawakkul Karman
Tawakkul Karman, also known to some as “mother of the revolution” is a human rights activist, a Yemeni journalist, and politician. In 2005 she co-founded the human rights group Women Journalists Without Chains, an organization which promotes the freedom of opinion and expression, and democratic rights. Tawakkul has been jailed many times by the Jemeni authorities for her advocacy for human rights. During the Yemeni uprisings in 2011, part of the broader Arab Spring uprisings, Tawakkul became the international public face of the revolution after being arrested from her car and thrown into jail. Thousands of people went into the streets to protest against Tawakkul’s detention.
