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Women must be at centre of relief efforts in Haiti
The shortage of medical supplies, food and water—along with rising violence—is having a disproportionate impact on women in Haiti. International relief efforts must ensure that humanitarian aid continues to reach women and other vulnerable groups.
Read more »Thank You Tibet! Video Message from Nobel Peace Laureates
In October, the women travelled with a delegation to Dharamsala, India in the name of Tibetan human rights. For the past fifty years, His Holiness, the Dalai Lama has lived in exile in Dharamsala, since being forced to flee his homeland of Tibet. The Laureates spent four days as guests of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government in exile. They brought messages of support and congratulations and helped launch the Thank You Tibet! campaign.
Watch the video!
Read more »Jody Williams to Obama: Stand Up for Women's Rights in Honduras
Nobel Peace Laureate Jody Williams and Executive Director of the human rights organization Just Associates, Lisa VeneKlassen, called upon US President Barack Obama to speak out "strongly and clearly" against the widespread human rights violations that have occurred in the aftermath of the coup in Honduras. The brunt of these violations have been endured by the women of Honduras.
In an Opinion Editorial in the Christian Science Monitor this week, the women urge Obama to live up to the expectations the his administration has raised in making support for women's rights a pillar of its foreign policy and show that it is serious about democracy.
Speaking out strongly and clearly against these abuses would improve Washington's moral authority. It would also signal to the rest of Latin America that the administration is serious about reestablishing US credentials as a defender of people, not just of political expediency.
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Wangari Maathai Joins Activists at Copenhagen Climate Summit
December 19: In Copenhagen, our world leaders have failed us. We do not have the fair, ambitious and legally binding agreement that millions around the world hoped the world leaders gathered here would deliver. They, and we, are not done yet.
December 17: Maathai Presents People's Orb to World Leaders at COP 15 with a Strong Call to Seal the Deal!
Maathai told politicians that while "they cannot negotiate with the environment they can negotiate with each other."
Read more »Nobel Peace Laureates Condemn Murders in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico
Just days before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights is expected to issue a landmark ruling condemning the State of Mexico in the "Campo Algodonero" case of three women murdered in Ciudad Juarez (Gonzalez et al. vs. Mexico), family members of two leading women's rights activists in Juarez have also been murdered.
The Nobel Women's Initiative has released a statement condemning these violent acts--intended to intimidate and silence women who are human rights defenders fighting for justice in the cases of hundreds of women murdered in Juarez--and calling upon the Mexican government to end violence against human rights defenders and their families.
Read the full statement. Download the PDF.
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Peace Laureates Join the Call for Climate Justice
Six women Nobel Peace Laureates have released a statement and a video about 'climate justice' today. As the world's eyes turn to Copenhagen for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15), Wangari Maathai, Shirin Ebadi, Jody Williams, Mairead Maguire, Rigoberta Menchu Tum and Betty Williams are calling upon world leaders to show true leadership at the conference. The women focus their call on four points which they feel will constitute a fair and sound agreement.
Read the statement. Download the PDF.
In Copenhagen, negotiators have the opportunity to craft a fair, ambitious and legally binding deal. -- from statement by 6 women Nobel Peace Laureates.
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Rigoberta Menchú Tum Helps Launch UN Regional Campaign to End Violence Against Women
mpaign for Latin America today. The campaign is an initiative of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in support of the UN Secretary General's Campaign to end violence against women. Together with her sister Nobel Peace Laureates, Menchú Tum released a statement calling on governments in the region to support women in their daily struggle to end violence."It is essential that we support women's leadership at all levels," stated Menchú Tum. She called on regional powers to redouble their efforts to fully comply with their international commitments to women’s rights.
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Nobel Women's Initiative Congratulates the Million Signatures Campaign on Winning Anna Politkovskaya Award
The One Million Signatures Campaign for Equality in Iran has won the RAW in WAR's third annual Anna Politkovskaya Award. The grass roots campaign, launched in 2006, aims to collect one million signatures of Iranian nationals to a petition demanding an end to legal discrimination against women in Iran.
Leila Alikarami, a lawyer and human rights activist, accepted the Anna Politkovskaya Award on behalf of the Campaign, which was presented to her by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Mairead Maguire, at a special award ceremony at Kings Place in London.
Nobel Women's Initiative Congratulates Barack Obama on Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Women's Initiative congratulates President Barack Obama on being announced the winner of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. Earlier today, his fellow Nobel Peace Laureate, Jody Williams, released the following statement:
President Obama has articulated a vision of a changed world -- one in which we no longer have to fear nuclear weapons, one in which there is respect for international law and a recognition that no individual, no single country, can change the world alone. I think that in awarding him the Nobel Peace Prize, the Nobel Committee wants to underscore the desperate need for the fulfillment of that vision. The awarding of the Prize, then, is call to action. -- Jody Williams, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, 1997
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Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai Addresses the UN on Climate Change
Speaking on behalf of the civil society Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai urged over 100 world leaders to fight climate change now at the UN Climate Change Summit.
We are here first and foremost as inhabitants of this planet. Before being leaders you are someone's mother, father, sister or brother. We appeal to you, our leaders, to personally go to Copenhagen, and for the almost seven billion people on Eearth, seal a fair deal. -Nobel Peace Laureate, Wangari Maathai.
Directly addressing the leaders, Wanagri Maathai stated that millions of people accross the world have made a Global Wake Up call to their leaders, and it is time to act now and act differently. Given the 15 negotiating days that are left before the UN Conference in December, the Nobel Laureate reinforced the responsibility and power that world leaders have in slowing the pace of climate change through concrete agreements.