Dates: July-August 2008
Location: Thai-Burma border, South Sudan, Chad-Darfur Region
Description
The laureates led a three-week tour through Asia and Africa, travelling in South Sudan and Thailand to refugee camps on the Chad-Sudan border and the Thai-Burma border where they met, heard and supported the women who were championing peace efforts in these regions.
Call to action
The delegation called on the international community to stop supplying weapons (principally China, a leading arms supplier), for an immediate cessation of violence, and to work instead to build sustainable peace, human security, and real development to benefit all the people of Africa.
Outcomes
Jody Williams and Wangari Maathai went to the UN, along with actor Mia Farrow, to support the indictment of Sudan’s president Omar Hassan al-Bashir by the international criminal court on the charges of genocide and war crimes.
The women also called for the international community to fully implement the UN resolution which allows for the full deployment of UN peacekeepers in Darfur.
Laureates
Jody Williams
Wangari Maathai
Delegates
Dr. Sima Samar, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Sudan
Qing Zhang, Chinese Labour Activist
Rev. Gloria White-Hammond, Co-founder, My Sister’s Keeper, a humanitarian women’s group that partners with women in Sudan
Lydia Cladek, Philanthropist
Judy Rand, Photographer and Videographer
Mia Farrow, Actor
Find out more
Media Coverage
Actions Against Leader of Sudan Fuel Debate (NY Times, 29 Sept 2008)
A group of Nobel peace laureates call for action to end violence in Darfur (African Press International, 30 July 2008)
Report
Women for Peace: Nobel Women’s Initiative Delegation to Thai Burma border, South Sudan, Chad-Darfur
Video
The Brian Lehrer Show - WNYC: Mia Farrow, Jody Williams, Wangari Maathai on Darfur and Burma (29 Sept 2008)
Photos