Dublin, Ireland,1 June 2007 Press Release
Women
Nobel Peace Prize Recipients Pledge to become a Global Voice in Tackling
Violence against Women and in Peace Advocacy
The women recipients of
the Nobel Peace Prize have said that they intend to use their collective voice
to advocate for a more prolific role for women in securing peace and combating
violence around the globe.
Speaking at the conclusion of the first
international conference of the Nobel
Women’s Initiative in Ireland, today (01.06.07), the Nobel Laureates said
that heretofore women’s work in building peace was marginalised and largely
unrecognised. They said it was now their intention to leverage the prestige of
the Nobel Prize to focus on violence against women, and advocate for recognition
of the many ways in which women prevent, combat and survive violence.
The
Nobel Women’s Initiative – which was established in 2006 – comprises six out of
the seven living women Nobel Laureates. The only Laureate unable to join the
initiative is Aung San Suu Kyi, who is still imprisoned in
Burma.
This week in Ireland the Initiative held its first conference on
the theme of “Women Redefining Peace: The Middle East and Beyond”. It was held
in closed session and was attended by over 70 women from around the globe,
including human rights activists, disarmament experts and ex-political
prisoners.
According to Nobel Laureate, Prof Jody Williams (USA, 1997), “arising from our
deliberations in Ireland this week, we feel strongly mandated by some of the
most prolific women peace activists to advocate at the highest level for greater
roles for women in achieving peace and combating violence.
“Women are
often the faceless and voiceless victims of conflict. Gender inequality is the
root cause of this. Governments and those in positions of power are reluctant to
face this down, and as a result, when women articulate their concerns and try to
negotiate resolutions, they are mostly ignored.
“Over the coming weeks
and months, the women Nobel Laureates will be making representations to
Governments and global institutions to realise the important contribution that
women can play in combating violence and securing peace.”
During its
first year, the Nobel Women’s Initiative has been particularly concerned about
the mounting challenges that face women in the Middle East, and in particular in
Iran and Lebanon. In August, Nobel Laureate, Dr Shirin Ebadi (Iran, 2003) and her colleagues were
threatened with prosecution for carrying out their human rights work.
Furthermore, earlier this year, Iran Authorities blocked access to the website
of a landmark campaign – initiated by women – to collect one
million signatures demanding and end to legal discrimination against women in
Iranian law.
According to Williams, the hostilities and serious threats
that are being experienced by women in Iran is just one demonstration of how
women’s engagement in peace resolution is hampered. “We realise that events such
as those in Iran are not isolated. Our ability to confront such actions against
women requires us to engage with Governments and work as a strong global force
with other women so that we can strengthen our response
strategies.”
Addressing today’s event in Dublin, Ebadi said that she felt
that despite the difficulties she and her colleagues faced in Iran, there was
some reason to be optimistic. “From our deliberations at our conference this
week, we feel that Iran and the wider Middle East can act as an important model
for how women’s rights, human security and peace issues can be addressed
globally. We are a live example of applying different approaches in dealing
effectively with fundamentalism and securing rights for women. As our work
continues in the Middle East, we can create models of best practice that can
hopefully be applied by women in other global settings.
“Apart from
creating best-practice approaches to conflict resolution, we are also cognisant
o the fact that women are victims of violence, be it through rape, beatings or
honour killings. A big part of the work that we now will undertake as Nobel
Laureates is to highlight this violence and secure actions by Government to
protect women from such abuses.”
Today’s event was also addressed by
Nobel Laureates, Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan Maguire (Ireland, 1976). According to Mairead
Corrigan Maguire, “it is by no means insignificant that Ireland was selected as
the location of the first international conference of the Nobel Women’s
Initiative. For three decades, women in Northern Ireland have played a
consistent and progressive role in securing a lasting settlement. Our work can
hopefully act as an inspiration to other women who are living in conflict
situations. The recent achievement of a devolved government in Northern Ireland
is a demonstration that efforts can be rewarded. And while significant credit
has gone to the main power-brokers in securing this devolution, the role which
women in Northern Ireland played at all levels cannot be
underestimated.”
OpenDemocracy.net covered the conference in a series
of podcasts, blogs and articles by participants which are being published on
openDemocracy.net. Visit: http://nobelwomensinitiative.opendemocracy.net/
CONTACT:
Catherine Heaney, DHR Communications @ +(353)87-2309835 or media@nobelwomensinitiative.org
Click
here for more information and links to participating
organizations.