Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became Liberia’s first democratically elected female president in 2006, three years after the country’s bloody civil war ended. During the 14-year conflict, more than 200,000 people perished.   Upon hearing news of the award, President Johnson Sirleaf credited her countrymen with Liberia’s current stability: "I'm accepting this on behalf of the Liberian people, so credit goes to them. . . .   For the past eight years, we have had peace and each and every one of them has contributed to this peace.” 

 

As head of the Women for Peace movement, Ms. Gbowee organized multiple peaceful demonstrations that helped bring an end to Liberia’s civil war and restore peace in the country. In November 2003, she led hundreds of women in a march against fighters who continued to rape women and girls in the country’s capital after the civil war ended. The women dressed in white to symbolize their hopes for peace, and marched to Monrovia’s City Hall. 

 

The World Movement for Democracy recognizes the great achievements of Liberian women who did not cower in the face of the worst atrocities of war, and turned adversity into triumph. As Liberia prepares for its upcoming elections, we hope this Nobel recognition will serve as a reminder that political competition should be carried out fairly, peacefully, and democratically. 

 

The World Movement takes special pride, however, in the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Ms. Karman, a World Movement participant who attended our Sixth Assembly in Jakarta, Indonesia, in April 2010. During the early days of the Arab Spring, she took to the streets of Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, with 50 other university students. One week later, she was detained by security forces. In an editorial published by The Guardian, Ms. Karman discussed the effect her detention had on the uprising: “This was to become a defining moment in the Yemeni revolution: media outlets reported my detention and demonstrations erupted in most provinces of the country; they were organized by students, civil society activists and politicians. The pressure on the government was intense, and I was released after 36 hours in a women's prison, where I was kept in chains.” Her determination and courage is thus an example to democracy movements everywhere, and her reaction to receiving the Prize also reflects the mission and spirit of the World Movement for Democracy itself: “This prize is not for Tawakkul,” she told the AP, “it is for the whole Yemeni people, for the martyrs, for the cause of standing up to (Saleh) and his gangs.  Every tyrant and dictator is upset by this prize because it confronts injustice." 

 

One of the 2011 Nobel nominees, Esraa Abdel Fattah, an Egyptian activist whose "April 6" Facebook campaign led to widespread protests in her country, and who is also a World Movement participant, expressed her solidarity: "Congratulations to Tawakkul—and to Arab women—for her Nobel Peace Prize.” Ms. Abdel Fattah, whom we also congratulate for her nomination, also expressed her pride for other women and youth activists, and we are pleased that the World Movement can serve in this way to build solidarity, not only in this region but around the world.

 

The World Movement for Democracy extends its sincere congratulations to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman on receiving the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize. We wish them every success in all their good work.