Dr. Shirin Ebadi, Rigoberta Menchu Tum and Jody Williams accepted the Glamour Magazine Women of the Year 2008 award on behalf of the Nobel Women’s Initiative at a star-studded gala ceremony held at Carnegie Hall in New York.

Glamour Magazine's Women of the Year 2008 Highlights

We, six women Nobel Peace Laureates—Shirin Ebadi, Jody Williams, Wangari Maathai, Rigoberta Menchu, Betty Williams and Mairead Maguire—are honoured to once again support the Reach All Women In War (RAW) Anna Politkovskaya Award. This award is presented each year to a woman human rights defender from an area of war and conflict, and keeps alive the spirit of Anna Politkovskaya: a woman activist and journalist from Russia whose courageous reports of atrocities against civilians in Chechyna led ultimately to her untimely death exactly two years ago.

Thankfully there are courageous women around the world who, like Anna Politkovskaya, are willing to speak truth to power. Malalai Joya—the recipient of this year’s award—is one such woman. The youngest-ever elected member of Afghanistan’s national parliament, Joya has bravely stood up for Afghanistan's citizens. Like Politkovskaya, her outspokenness has come with a high price. She lives under a cloud of death threats, and on several occasions her opponents have even physically assaulted her. In spring of 2007, Joya was indefinitely suspended from Parliament for defending the rights of the Afghan people—this, despite the fact that women from across the country have rallied to her support. Joya continues to speak out for Afghan women, and against the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan.

Nobel Laureates Jody Williams and Wangari Maathai—along with actress-activist Mia Farrow—are in New York at the United Nations, pressing for more concerted international action to end the bloodshed and violence in Sudan, Darfur and Burma.

They released a report that details findings from their recent visit to both regions. The report includes strong recommendations aimed at the international community on creating sustainable peace in both regions.

To learn more, check out the media release or download the report below.

Over the next decade the students and Laureates will work together to inspire and mobilize the global community to initiate one billion 'acts of peace'. For the students' part they have been busy organizing 'Global Call to Action Projects' that they will carry out in their local communities. Youth attending the 3-day conference in Los Angeles got the chance to present their Global Call to Action Projects directly to the Nobel Laureates. Laureates attending the event included four Nobel Women's Initiative Laureates- Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Jody Williams, Betty Williams and Shirin Ebadi, as well as the esteemed Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and Adolfo Perez Esquivel of Argentina.

Nobel Women Peace Laureates Call for Immediate Cessation of Violence in Darfur and Support for the Full Implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement

--August 1, 2008. (Juba, Southern Sudan)

A delegation of the Nobel Women’s Initiative—including Nobel Peace Laureates Wangari Maathai of Kenya and Jody Williams of the United States, and activist-actor Mia Farrow met in Juba this week with Salva Kiir Mayardit, President of the Government of Southern Sudan, three women ministers and with representatives of more than 30 Sudanese women’s non-governmental groups from across the country.

The Nobel Women's Initiative Delegation, led by Nobel Peace Laureate Jody Williams and actor-activist, Mia Farrow, left Thailand to join the leadership of Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai in Addis Ababa, seat of the African Union. The Delegation held a briefing with international press and government officials at the African Union. At the briefing, members of the Delegation called for an immediate cessation of violence in Darfur, and full support for legitimate negotiations to build sustainable peace. The Delegation expressed extreme concern about the on-going, systematic violence against women and children including the use of rape as a weapon of war.

The Nobel Women's Initiative Delegation hosted a media briefing on 25 July 2008 at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand. The Delegation led by Nobel Peace Laureate Jody Williams and activist-actor Mia Farrow called the briefing after spending the last week in Thailand, at the Thai-Burma border meeting with survivors of cyclone Nargis as well as women's groups and community organizations. Members of the international press attended the briefing.

"Please use your liberty to promote ours."

Aung San Suu Kyi

The Nobel Women's Initiative Delegation, led by Nobel Peace Laureate Jody Williams and Mia Farrow, met today with women from Burma as well as various Thai ethnic groups at Chiang Mai University. The symposium was co-organized by the Women's Studies Department at Chiang Mai University and the Nobel Women's Initiative for the purpose of highlighting the political rights crises faced by women in Thailand and Burma.

The Nobel Women’s Initiative will proudly lead a delegation to Thailand - the Thai-Burma border, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Chad from July 21 to August 6.

Led through the first leg of its journey by Nobel Peace Laureate Jody Williams and Mia Farrow, renowned activist and actor, the delegation leadership will be joined by Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai on the African leg.

The objective of this delegation is to hear and relay the messages of women’s groups in the regions, call attention to their courageous efforts for peace and justice, and promote effective resolutions to the political crisis facing Burma and the escalated conflict in Darfur.

The Delegation has come to the area of the Thai/Burma border and will continue on to South Sudan and Darfuri refugee camps in Chad,

Nobel Peace Laureate Jody Williams and Liz Bernstein, Executive Director of the Nobel Women's Initiative, joined Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire and The Peace People in Belfast to launch A Call to Bring Down the Walls, a campaign to appoint a Minister of Peace in Northern Ireland.  Sister Laureates, Wangari Maathai, Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Shirin Ebadi, and Betty Williams along with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu endorse the campaign.

At an event in Belfast's Parliament Buildings, Maguire warned "As we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement we must be grateful for how far the people of Northern Ireland have come, but we musn't be complacent." She added, "We have to recognize the legacy of a divided society...The Ministry of Peace builds on the work communities are doing - and it places the task of rebuilding our communities at the heart of our government."