Haitian women who are living and organising in the displacement camps, together with international partners, have produced an essential blueprint for addressing rape. If adopted by the Haitian Parliament as revisions to the Haitian legal code, this would be a major advancement in legislation addre
In recognising rape and sexual violence as a violation of human rights, the presence of expansive and well intentioned laws is not effective if impunity ensures lack of accountability and transparency, says Adelaide
Sixty years after Britain’s first atomic weapons test, we need to consider the parallels between how the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty was achieved in the 1990s and today’s nuclear challenges. The British government is, yet again, unable to read the writing on the wall, says Rebecca Johnson
What unites people's movements from the Arab 'spring' to Occupy, is a new consciousness that a good life, with dignity, freedom, fairness and human security, is their right - and by the law of love and logic, the right of every man and woman, says laureate Mairead Maguire.
Civil society, the Non-Aligned Movement, and a cross regional group of 16 countries have brought humanitarian consequences and international law to the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review meeting in Vienna. This may be a potential game changer, says Rebecca Johson
While the world turns, nuclear weapons are modernised and revalued in nine nuclear-armed states, causing a growing number of nuclear-weapon-free countries to reassess their options for security. Rebecca Johnson reports from Vienna where diplomats are gathering to review progress on the 1968 Treaty
What do I do differently as a result of knowing this great woman? I utterly believe in the power of one local person to transform a violent situation. I know that humiliation is the driver of most incidents of violence, and that respect is the best antidote to humiliation, and I try to apply that.
In the company of souls departed and souls vibrantly alive, Jessica Horn reflects on the significance of the lives of Nobel laureates Leymah Gbowee and the late Wangari Maathai, and the transgressive power of African women on a mission.
Small and big things, local and global, bridging the communities of the elite and the every day, never losing the sight of the reason why it was important to do so. On the day of the memorial service for Wangari Maathai, Maggie Baxter remembers her friend and colleague
“We have included the Arab Spring in this prize, but we have put it in a particular context. Namely, if one fails to include the women in the revolution and the new democracies, there will be no democracy.” Thorbjoern Jagland, chair of the Nobel Prize Committee
The women Peace Laureates of the Nobel Women’s Initiative—Jody Williams (USA), Shirin Ebadi (Iran), Mairead Maguire (Ireland) and Rigoberta Menchú Tum (Guatemala)—have sent letters of congratulation to the three women joining them as Nobel Peace Laureates.