IN October 2000, the United Nations (UN) Security Council adopted Resolution 1325, which, for the first time, made violence against women in armed conflict an international security issue.It underlined the need for women to become participants on an equal footing with men in peace processes and in peace work in general. Subsequently, the efforts of women at the centre of conflict resolution processes have received global recognition. Little wonder that the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to three women. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, first democratically-elected female President of Liberia, shares the prize with country woman Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman of Yemen. The three women have furthered the causes of peace and women's rights in their countries. They were chosen "for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work." The prize money - 10 million Swedish krona ($1.5 million) is to be divided in equal parts among the three laureates, a gold medal and a diploma, which will be presented at a ceremony to be held in the Oslo City Hall on December 10, the death anniversary of its founder, Alfred Nobel.The trio join the list of only 12 women to ever win the prize, 85 men have won, including: Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar (formerly Burma), Mother Teresa, and more recently environmentalist Wangari Muta Maathai of Kenya (2004), who died last month. Since 1901, 91 Nobel Peace prizes have been awarded to 98 individuals and 23 organizations. United States President, Barack Obama, won the prize in 2009 "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples'. The youngest recipient of the prize was Mairead Corrigan (1976). She was 32, the same age as Karman. Corrigan founded the Northern Ireland Peace Movement. Incidentally, Miss Karman is playing a central role in the campaign to resolve the issues in Yemen. The oldest recipient was Polish Scientist, Joseph Rotblat who at the age of 87 won in 1995 for his work "to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international politics and, in the longer run, to eliminate such arms'. The activities of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winners are fundamental to advancing world peace. Therefore, the award is an eye-opener to the undervalued contributions of women in development'; and social construction of gender and the assignment of specific roles, responsibilities and expectations to women and men in the world. It may also refocus the negative representation of women as sex objects and passive recipients, amongst others, because of traditions, customs, stereotyping of social roles, cultural prejudice, but now to see women as agents of change rather than as passive recipients of development. It also stresses the need for women to organise themselves for more effective political activism and voice because it has been acknowledged that women are catalysts to people-centred development strategies focused on improved standard of living and good government that give men and women equal voices in decision-making and policy implementation, good governance, attainment of MDGs and other global/regional targets. This award is an acknowledgement of women's roles in peace-building. It looked beyond the role of women in the private sphere to their roles in the public sphere; and does not focus singularly on productive or reproductive aspects of women. It brings to the fore women's contributions within the public sphere outside the household; and rejects the public/private dichotomy which commonly has been used as a mechanism to undervalue and discountenance the call for women's participation in the public sphere. It also questions the underlying assumptions of social, economic and political structures and institutions that shape the representation and perception of women's role in national development. In fact, this rare recognition given to women will eliminate all such barriers by charting a way for institutional change, and social transformation amenable to the principles of gender equality.The award to the three women should convince patriarchal societies of the need to redefine the social relevance of women in the public sphere; and media representation which influence people's understanding of the social reality, media institutions and products that propagate social norms and patriarchal values, which limit women's mobility across private and public spheres, and which believe that men are natural leaders. We hail this development and say that it is recognition well-deserved for women as peace makers and custodians of peace. It is a good verdict; and a demonstration of the mainstreaming of gender in different spheres of human endeavour, which is the kernel of current global empowerment drive aimed at situating women at the centre of core events; because integrating women into all facets of national life will ensure holistic development. By awarding three women who are at the fore of women's rights, and from countries where the international community supports the people's protests against repression, the Nobel Peace Prize Committee is sending a very important and positive signal to focus efforts on the emancipation of minorities and women. It would lead, inevitably, to a fundamental reexamination of social structures and institutions and, ultimately, to the loss of power of entrenched elite, which inevitably will affect some women as well as men.
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