June 29, 2005
(Washington, DC) – Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland, CA) was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize today as part of an international effort to recognize the work of women around the word who promote peace.
“It’s an honor to be included with all of these women who have done so much to promote peace on our planet,” said Lee. “I think that this project is doing an important job of highlighting the often overlooked work that women all around the world are doing every day to promote peace.”
Lee is one of 1000 women from more than 150 countries who were nominated jointly for the Nobel Peace Prize in an effort the organizers describe as an attempt “to publicize the wealth of strategies, procedures for conflict resolution and methods of negotiation that women all over the world develop in order to deal with the various socio-political issues and problems in their respective regions.” The number 10000 is symbolic of the “innumerable women worldwide who are engaged in the cause of peace and human dignity.”
According to project organizers, Lee was nominated for being the only member of Congress to vote against the post-9/11 resolution giving President Bush unbridled power to use military force against anyone suspected of having committed the acts, for her leadership in promoting policies that foster international peace, security and human rights, her work promoting legislation to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS and promote treatment, and her longstanding advocacy for the most vulnerable, especially women and children.
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14 from Bay Area up for peace prize
They're selected to be among the '1,000 Women for Nobel'
- Veronique Mistiaen, Chronicle Foreign Service Wednesday, June 29, 2005
London -- When organizers set out to find nominees for a project called "1,000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005," they hit pay dirt in the Bay Area. Fourteen of the nominees -- a third of all the American women selected for the international project -- call the Bay Area home.
The names of all 1,000 nominees for the project, which seeks to recognize the work of women as peacemakers, are to be announced this morning at press conferences in San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Hong Kong, Kabul, New Delhi, Boston and other locations across the globe. They have already been submitted to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee in Oslo, which will announce the Peace Prize winner this fall.
Though the local nominees were chosen collectively for the Peace Prize, they are a pretty diverse group, reflecting what organizers conceded was "a broad definition of peace.'
Ellen Barry, for instance, is a prison rights activist and lawyer who speaks out for women in U.S. jails and prisons. Candi Smucker co-founded fair- trade stores to help workers of the world earn a living wage. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, was the only member of either house of Congress to vote against the post-Sept. 11 resolution giving military force powers to President Bush.
"It's an honor to be included with all these women who have done so much to promote peace in our planet," said Lee, who was selected not only for that vote, but for her work on AIDS, housing and homelessness, ending genocide, education, health care and other issues.
The idea behind the project, organizers said, was to find 1,000 exemplary women to collectively receive the Nobel Peace Prize, representing the millions of nameless women all over the world who work for justice, education, political rights and security.
The project originated in Switzerland in March 2003, when Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold, a member of the Swiss Parliament and the Council of Europe, visited refugee camps in Bosnia, Chechnya and other war-torn countries.
"Everywhere I meet courageous and resolute women who perform reconstruction and peace work in extremely dangerous circumstances," she said. "Yet their work leaves scarcely any trace. I wanted to render visible the work of these women."
Since the Nobel Peace Prize was first awarded in 1901, all but 12 of the recipients have been men.
During 2004, the Swiss team and 20 international coordinators -- influential women from all continents -- searched the globe and collected thousands of candidates, from whom they selected the 1,000 nominees. They are farmers, teachers, activists, artists and politicians. They come from more than 150 countries and work at all levels of society.
"We chose women working in armed conflict zones, but also those doing work in health, family planning, sexual orientation advocacy, environmental activism and sustainable economic development,' said international coordinator Margo Okazawa-Rey, former director of the Women's Leadership Institute at Mills College in Oakland, who was responsible for finding nominees in North America, Japan and Korea.
"It is our conviction that there is no peace without justice, so we included nominees in many aspects of the justice work," she said. "We also tended to highlight women who have been at it for a while, who have a distinguished track record, who broke new ground, who inspired others, who showed courage, vision and integrity."
The $3.8 million project is funded through foundations, institutes and individuals, mainly in Switzerland.
From across the United States, 114 candidates were proposed, and 40 women made the final cut, including 14 from the Bay Area.
"We tried very hard to get candidates from most regions of the U.S., but none were as active as in the Bay Area -- typical of activism and the kind of women living here," Okazawa-Rey said.
The Bay Area nominees are a multiracial group of philanthropists, artists, grass-roots activists, academics and political figures.
Barry has worked for 28 years with female prisoners, their children and families.
"In working toward a world that does not look to imprisonment and torture as the first response to keeping the 'have nots' in their place, we are working toward peace," Barry said. "Without a system of justice that all of the population can believe in and accept as equitable and fair, the U.S. will never be able to achieve peace within its borders and will never be able to defend a position of peace around the world.'
Smucker is the co-owner of Baksheesh fair-trade stores in Sonoma and Healdsburg.
"In my work growing fair-trade retailing in the U.S., I have found that the greatest change happens from the ground up," Smucker said. "When I have the opportunity to visit artisans whose goods we sell and ask them what difference our purchases make in their lives, I know that every drop of purchasing we can do contributes to an ocean of change."
The project's team is putting together a book about the lives, strategies and visions of all the nominees and a 1,000 postcards exhibition, with photos, short biographies and testimonies.
"This is one of the most inspiring projects I have been involved in," said Okazawa-Rey. "Both my students and I are often overwhelmed by the dire conditions facing the world. This project demonstrated that thousands, millions of women -- as well as men -- in the world are out there, struggling against great odds, under threat, to make it a better place for us all.'
For more information, see www.1000peacewomen.org. The names will be announced at 9 a.m. today at the Women's Building, 3543 18th St., San Francisco.
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14 women
Bay Ar
Congresswoman Barbara Lee Among Nominees for Nobel Peace Prize
1000 Nominees from Around the Globe Highlight Women’s Work for Peace
(Washington, DC) – Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland, CA) was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize today as part of an international effort to recognize the work of women around the word who promote peace.
“It’s an honor to be included with all of these women who have done so much to promote peace on our planet,” said Lee. “I think that this project is doing an important job of highlighting the often overlooked work that women all around the world are doing every day to promote peace.”
Lee is one of 1000 women from more than 150 countries who were nominated jointly for the Nobel Peace Prize in an effort the organizers describe as an attempt “to publicize the wealth of strategies, procedures for conflict resolution and methods of negotiation that women all over the world develop in order to deal with the various socio-political issues and problems in their respective regions.” The number 10000 is symbolic of the “innumerable women worldwide who are engaged in the cause of peace and human dignity.”
According to project organizers, Lee was nominated for being the only member of Congress to vote against the post-9/11 resolution giving President Bush unbridled power to use military force against anyone suspected of having committed the acts, for her leadership in promoting policies that foster international peace, security and human rights, her work promoting legislation to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS and promote treatment, and her longstanding advocacy for the most vulnerable, especially women and children.
###
14 from Bay Area up for peace prize
They're selected to be among the '1,000 Women for Nobel'
- Veronique Mistiaen, Chronicle Foreign Service Wednesday, June 29, 2005
London -- When organizers set out to find nominees for a project called "1,000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005," they hit pay dirt in the Bay Area. Fourteen of the nominees -- a third of all the American women selected for the international project -- call the Bay Area home.
The names of all 1,000 nominees for the project, which seeks to recognize the work of women as peacemakers, are to be announced this morning at press conferences in San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Hong Kong, Kabul, New Delhi, Boston and other locations across the globe. They have already been submitted to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee in Oslo, which will announce the Peace Prize winner this fall.
Though the local nominees were chosen collectively for the Peace Prize, they are a pretty diverse group, reflecting what organizers conceded was "a broad definition of peace.'
Ellen Barry, for instance, is a prison rights activist and lawyer who speaks out for women in U.S. jails and prisons. Candi Smucker co-founded fair- trade stores to help workers of the world earn a living wage. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, was the only member of either house of Congress to vote against the post-Sept. 11 resolution giving military force powers to President Bush.
"It's an honor to be included with all these women who have done so much to promote peace in our planet," said Lee, who was selected not only for that vote, but for her work on AIDS, housing and homelessness, ending genocide, education, health care and other issues.
The idea behind the project, organizers said, was to find 1,000 exemplary women to collectively receive the Nobel Peace Prize, representing the millions of nameless women all over the world who work for justice, education, political rights and security.
The project originated in Switzerland in March 2003, when Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold, a member of the Swiss Parliament and the Council of Europe, visited refugee camps in Bosnia, Chechnya and other war-torn countries.
"Everywhere I meet courageous and resolute women who perform reconstruction and peace work in extremely dangerous circumstances," she said. "Yet their work leaves scarcely any trace. I wanted to render visible the work of these women."
Since the Nobel Peace Prize was first awarded in 1901, all but 12 of the recipients have been men.
During 2004, the Swiss team and 20 international coordinators -- influential women from all continents -- searched the globe and collected thousands of candidates, from whom they selected the 1,000 nominees. They are farmers, teachers, activists, artists and politicians. They come from more than 150 countries and work at all levels of society.
"We chose women working in armed conflict zones, but also those doing work in health, family planning, sexual orientation advocacy, environmental activism and sustainable economic development,' said international coordinator Margo Okazawa-Rey, former director of the Women's Leadership Institute at Mills College in Oakland, who was responsible for finding nominees in North America, Japan and Korea.
"It is our conviction that there is no peace without justice, so we included nominees in many aspects of the justice work," she said. "We also tended to highlight women who have been at it for a while, who have a distinguished track record, who broke new ground, who inspired others, who showed courage, vision and integrity."
The $3.8 million project is funded through foundations, institutes and individuals, mainly in Switzerland.
From across the United States, 114 candidates were proposed, and 40 women made the final cut, including 14 from the Bay Area.
"We tried very hard to get candidates from most regions of the U.S., but none were as active as in the Bay Area -- typical of activism and the kind of women living here," Okazawa-Rey said.
The Bay Area nominees are a multiracial group of philanthropists, artists, grass-roots activists, academics and political figures.
Barry has worked for 28 years with female prisoners, their children and families.
"In working toward a world that does not look to imprisonment and torture as the first response to keeping the 'have nots' in their place, we are working toward peace," Barry said. "Without a system of justice that all of the population can believe in and accept as equitable and fair, the U.S. will never be able to achieve peace within its borders and will never be able to defend a position of peace around the world.'
Smucker is the co-owner of Baksheesh fair-trade stores in Sonoma and Healdsburg.
"In my work growing fair-trade retailing in the U.S., I have found that the greatest change happens from the ground up," Smucker said. "When I have the opportunity to visit artisans whose goods we sell and ask them what difference our purchases make in their lives, I know that every drop of purchasing we can do contributes to an ocean of change."
The project's team is putting together a book about the lives, strategies and visions of all the nominees and a 1,000 postcards exhibition, with photos, short biographies and testimonies.
"This is one of the most inspiring projects I have been involved in," said Okazawa-Rey. "Both my students and I are often overwhelmed by the dire conditions facing the world. This project demonstrated that thousands, millions of women -- as well as men -- in the world are out there, struggling against great odds, under threat, to make it a better place for us all.'
For more information, see www.1000peacewomen.org. The names will be announced at 9 a.m. today at the Women's Building, 3543 18th St., San Francisco.
_____
14 women
Bay Ar