Nobel 2011: Peace by and for Women

Along the past year or so I’ve been supporting this campaign (em Portugues aqui) petitioning for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize to be awarded to African Women as a collective. It has been slightly disappointing to learn that it wasn’t to be exactly so, but this year’s prize still comes somehow satisfying in that regard - "for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work" it has been awarded jointly to:



Ellen Johnson Sirleaf – President of Liberia


Leymah Gbowee – former campaigner for the end of civil war in Liberia


Tawakkul Karman – Women’s rights activist in Yemen


There is another ‘consolation side’ to this year’s prize: it comes just a few days after the sad passing away of Wangari Maathai, the first ever African Woman Nobel Prize winner.

Along the past year or so I’ve been supporting this campaign (em Portugues aqui) petitioning for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize to be awarded to African Women as a collective. It has been slightly disappointing to learn that it wasn’t to be exactly so, but this year’s prize still comes somehow satisfying in that regard - "for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work" it has been awarded jointly to:



Ellen Johnson Sirleaf – President of Liberia


Leymah Gbowee – former campaigner for the end of civil war in Liberia


Tawakkul Karman – Women’s rights activist in Yemen


There is another ‘consolation side’ to this year’s prize: it comes just a few days after the sad passing away of Wangari Maathai, the first ever African Woman Nobel Prize winner.