The Nobel Pce Prize for 2011 (Official announcement)

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Pce Prize for 2011 is to be divided in three equal parts between Ellen Johnson Sirlf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in pce-building work. We cannot achieve democracy and lasting pce in the world unless women obtain the same opportunities as men to influence developments at all levels of society.
In October 2000, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1325. The resolution for the first time made violence against women in armed conflict an international security issue. It underlined the need for women to become participants on an equal footing with men in pce processes and in pce work in eral.
Ellen Johnson Sirlf is Africa’s first democratically elected female president. Since her inauguration in 2006, she has contributed to securing pce in Liberia, to promoting economic and social development, and to strengthening the position of women. Leymah Gbowee mobilized and organized women across ethnic and religious dividing lines to bring an end to the long war in Liberia, and to ensure women’s participation in elections. She has since worked to enhance the influence of women in West Africa during and after war. In the most trying circumstances, both before and during the “Arab spring”, Tawakkul Karman has played a lding part in the struggle for women’s rights and for democracy and pce in Yemen.
It is the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s hope that the prize to Ellen Johnson Sirlf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman will help to bring an end to the suppression of women that still occurs in many countries, and to rlise the grt potential for democracy and pce that women can represent.
Oslo, October 7, 2011
Source: Nobelprize.org