The Nobel Peace Prize for 2011 is divided in three equal parts between Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work. 

Leader of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is Africa’s first democratically elected female president. 

Leymah Gbowee mobilized and organized women across ethnic and religious dividing lines to bring an end to the long war in Liberia, and to ensure women’s participation in elections.  She has since worked to enhance the influence of women in West Africa during and after war. 

In the most trying circumstances, both before and during the “Arab spring”, Tawakkul Karman has played a leading part in the struggle for women’s rights and for democracy and peace in Yemen, says the statement on Nobel Prize website.

Peace Prize is the last of five awards bequeathed by Alfred Nobel.

The awarding ceremony will be held in Stockholm and Oslo on December 10 – the anniversary of Nobel’s death.