Congratulations to Women Peace Builders Awarded Nobel Peace Prize

Nobel Prize

We join the international community in celebrating today’s historic announcement by The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which has awarded the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize to three extraordinary women peace builders: President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee of Liberia, and Yemeni activist Tawakkul Karman.

The Committee cited these women’s “non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace building work” in its decision to recognize the awardees. 

This announcement sends a resounding, global message: women are powerful agents of peace and democracy, and we must commit ourselves to creating the opportunity and environment that supports their full participation.

As Committee Chairman Thorbjoern Jagland told reporters, “we cannot achieve democracy and lasting peace in the world unless women obtain the same opportunities as men to influence developments at all levels of society.”

In 2006, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was elected president of Liberia, the first democratically elected woman to lead an African country. Her historic election compelled us to inaugurate the Global Trailblazer Award in her honor, which President Sirleaf accepted in 2006 following her election. This coming Tuesday, presidential elections in Liberia will determine whether Sirleaf, ahead in polls, will be reelected to a second term.

Internationally renowned Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee mobilized an all-women peace initiative that united Christian and Muslim women and led to the 2003 Comprehensive Peace Agreement for Liberia. Last month, we were honored to have Leymah join Vital Voices in Washington to share her perspective during a roundtable discussion on the women’s peace movement in Liberia.

Tawakkul Karman has been called Yemen’s “mother of the revolution.” A progressive journalist who has been actively campaigning for progress in conservative Yemen long before the uprising, Karman is a symbol of the Arab Spring, and the first Arab to win the prize.