Winners are Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee of Liberia and Tawakul Karman of Yemen for 'their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work'
Good morning. Welcome to live coverage of the Nobel Peace Prize 2011. The winner is due to be announced at 10am BST.
Recent winners have proved controversial for very different reasons. Last year the committee angered China by awarding the prize to dissident Liu Xiaobo.
The year before Barack Obama won, despite taking office as US president less than two weeks before the February nomination deadline. That decision prompted ridicule from some quarters (Given criticism over Obama's support for extra-judicial killings this year, a repeat performance is unlikely to be on the cards).
Less controversial winners have included Nelson Mandela (jointly with Frederik Willem de Klerk), Médecins Sans Frontières and Mother Teresa (see the full list here).
As ever, the fact that nominations are not made public has not stopped speculation about potential winners. The Guardian's guide to possible recipients includes Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, alleged US military leaker Bradley Manning, activists from the Arab Spring and Aung San Suu Kyi (who would be the first individual to take home the prize twice).
Also named was former German chancellor Helmut Kohl, who has apparently been nominated every years since 1990, when he presided over the reunification of Germany.
The Guardian readers' choice was Bradley Manning, followed by Julian Assange. If either of these two men win expect a similar reaction from the US to China's reaction over last year's decision.
However, the chairman of the prize committee, Thorbjoern Jagland, said in an interview on Wednesday that the winner is "obvious" and he's surprised that "commentators and experts" haven't picked up on it. Does that mean Bono?
The Telegraph asks: "Could Facebook or Twitter win?" Who could argue with awarding the prize to a medium that allows people to insult others/set up pages denigrating them under a cloak of anonymity?
More likely is that activists who made use of social media will be rewarded or the groups that they set up which employed such tools.
One of those he tipped was Israa Abdel Fattah, together with the April 6th Youth Movement she co-founded (with its own Facebook page).
The other was Wael Ghonim. Ghonim, a Google executive and web activist (he ran the "We are All Khaled Said" Facebook page named after a man allegedly killed by police), became one of the faces of the Egyptian revolution when he gave an emotional television interview after being released from prison. Although Ghonim has been the subject of criticism from some other Egyptian activists who feel his role in the revolution was overplayed.
Prio says that Harpviken "may be well placed to speculate on this topic" but he has no role in the nominations process and the institute does not have any formal links to the Nobel Institute and the Nobel Peace Prize Committee.
Harpviken also mentioned Tunisian blogger Lina Ben Mhenni as a possible winner, saying "she has a record of criticising her government's authoritative stance that predates the uprisings of December 2010".
As we await the announcement of the winner of this year's prize, Human Rights Watch has pointed out that last year's recipient, Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo (pictured left, in around 2005), is still languishing in jail.
In a press release, it says:
Human Rights Watch urged all governments represented at the December 2010 Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo to use the anniversary of the announcement of the prize on October 8, 2010, to call for Liu's freedom and for an end to the illegal persecution of his family and supporters.
It adds:
In response to the popular uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa, the Chinese government in mid-February began its most severe crackdown on lawyers, bloggers, artists, writers, and others in more than a decade, placing some of them under house arrest. In an alarming trend, Human Rights Watch said, at least 24 people, including the activist artist Ai Weiwei and the human rights lawyer Teng Biao, have been victims of enforced disappearances. Even after they were released, the government imposed onerous restrictions on their freedom of expression and association. A total of 52 others, including the housing rights activist Ni Yulan, have been silenced with specious criminal charges such as "inciting a disturbance."
Amnesty International has made a similar anniversary appeal, also calling for the release of Liu's wife, Liu Xia.
Catherine Baber, Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific deputy director, said:
Within hours of the announcement that her husband had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the police made Liu Xia a virtual prisoner in her own home.
Without being charged with any crime, without trial or any other judicial procedure, and without any means to challenge her detention, Liu Xia was placed under illegal house arrest and since then has all but disappeared, simply for being the wife of a renowned government critic.
Liu Xiaobo must be released immediately and unconditionally and all restrictions on Liu Xia must be lifted.
About three minutes to go! If you're interested in the nomination and selection process, here's a guide.
The winners are three people: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakul Karman.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (below), president of Liberia, is the first elected female head of state in Africa.
Leymah Gbowee is a peace activist in Liberia
Tawakul Karman (above) is a Yemeni journalist and human rights activist.
The Norwegian Nobel committee honoured the three women "for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work".
Here's an extract from a profile of Johnson-Sirleaf from earlier this year, by Emine Saner:
Johnson-Sirleaf was Raised in Monrovia and educated at Harvard. Her involvement in her country's politics has followed a pattern of challenging powerful men, resulting in several periods of exile. In the 1970s she held positions in Liberia's government until Samuel Doe seized power and Johnson-Sirleaf escaped to Kenya. She returned and campaigned against his military rule during the 1985 elections, but was arrested and briefly imprisoned – where a soldier tried to rape her – before going into exile again, taking a series of senior positions at the UN and World Bank. When she challenged Charles Taylor, who had taken control of Liberia, for the presidency in 1997, she was charged with treason and again left the country. When Taylor was cited for war crimes by the UN and was forced out, Johnson-Sirleaf returned to fight and win.
The task of rebuilding Liberia is colossal but important steps have been made – Johnson-Sirleaf, 72, negotiated significant debt relief, more than quadrupled the national budget, opened a large investigation into corruption and started the truth and reconciliation commission to address crimes committed during the civil war. School enrolment has also gone up 40%, with girls making up the majority of the new attendees. Women are employed at high levels of her cabinet, and a surge of female recruits joined the police and military. "I look at those societies where women have been given the opportunity, and those are the societies that succeed," she says.
Here's a link to an interview with Johnson-Sirleaf, also from this year.
The gentleman who made the announcement (sorry I didn't catch his name) was asked by the press why the committee chose an activist from Yemen.
Contrasting Karman's work to that of bloggers, he said she "showed courage long before the revolution started".
He said it was "a signal to the whole Arab world that one cannot set aside the women if one wants to build democracies".
Earlier this year, Tom Finn, wrote of Karman in the Guardian:
The outspoken journalist and human rights activist has long been a thorn in Ali Abdullah Saleh's side, agitating for press freedoms and staging weekly sit-ins to demand the release of political prisoners from jail – a place she has been several times herself.Now inspired by the uprising in Tunisia and the resignation of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, she finds herself at the head of a popular protest movement which is shaking the Yemeni regime to its core ...
Karman has many grievances against her government but it was a sheikh's tyranny against villagers in Ibb, a governorate south of the capital, that ignited her activism. "I watched as families were thrown off their land by a corrupt tribal leader. They were a symbol to me of the injustice faced by so many in Yemen," she says. "It dawned on me that nothing could change this regime, only protest" ...
Her advice for women is not to wait for permission before demanding rights: "If you go to the protests now, you will see something you never saw before: hundreds of women. They shout and sing, they even sleep there in tents. This is not just a political revolution, it's a social revolution."
Her tireless campaigning has earned her international acclaim and devoted admirers around the world. Her seven Facebook pages (she claims six were created by the government) are filled with messages of support and admiration, many from exiled Yemenis. In 2010, she was nominated for a US state department woman of courage award.
One of the three joint winners, Tawakul Karman, told the Associated Press:
I am very very happy about this prize. I give the prize to the youth of revolution in Yemen and the Yemeni people.
Here is the complete text of the citation for the 2011 Nobel peace prize:
The Norwegian Nobel committee has decided that the Nobel peace prize for 2011 is to be divided in three equal parts between Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakul Karman for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work. We cannot achieve democracy and lasting peace in the world unless women obtain the same opportunities as men to influence developments at all levels of society.
In October 2000, the UN security council adopted Resolution 1325. The resolution 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.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is Africa's first democratically elected female president. Since her inauguration in 2006, she has contributed to securing peace in Liberia, to promoting economic and social development, and to strengthening the position of women. 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," Tawakul Karman has played a leading part in the struggle for women's rights and for democracy and peace in Yemen.
It is the Norwegian Nobel committee's hope that the prize to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman will help to bring an end to the suppression of women that still occurs in many countries, and to realise the great potential for democracy and peace that women can represent.
Tawakul Karman can be seen leading chants at a demonstration in Sana'a in June in this footage.
There is also clip of an interview with her in Arabic on the opposition Suhail TV.
Writing in the Guardian in April Karman urged the US and Europe to call for the removal of president Saleh:
Let us be clear: the Yemeni revolution has already brought internal stability to a state riddled with war and conflict. I call on the global community to support the peaceful revolution as it did in Tunisia and Egypt. I call on the United States and the European Union to tell Saleh that he must leave now, in response to the demands of his people. They should end all support for his regime, especially that which is used to crush peaceful opposition – tear gas canisters have "Made in America" on them. They should freeze the Saleh family's assets and those of Saleh's henchmen and return them to the people.
If the US and Europe genuinely support the people, as they say, they must not betray our peaceful revolution. It is the expression of the democratic will of the overwhelming majority of the people of Yemen.
Here are some facts putting this year's Nobel peace prize in context, from Simon Rogers (who has compiled a full list of winners on the Guardian's Data Blog):
• The vast majority are men: 85, compared to 15 women
• In fact there have been more institutions than women - 23 since 1901
• 29 winners are from the US
• Nearly half of all winners have to share their prize - only 52% get to keep it all to themselves
• The prize has only been split three ways once before: in 1994 when Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat shared
I spoke to Gauri van Gulik, a women's rights advocate for Human Rights Watch, who said the Nobel committee's recognition of these three women should be a catalyst for change:
I think it's an incredible recognition of what we can achieve with women participating in peace processes and in democracies. I think these women are not just here because they are women. They were awarded this prize because of their incredible roles so far in toppling regimes and in changing democracies throughout the world.
It's a clear statement that says that you cannot achieve any lasting peace, any democracies unless women are part of the process and unless women's rights are at the heart of the reform system and that is unfortunately what we are not seeing in some places that have gone through this Arab spring where women like Egypt where women aren't at the heart of the process.
We have worked with them [the winners], most recently with Ms Karman in Yemen where this struggle is very much alive and it's a struggle that the whole world should pay attention to and certainly this prize will help that.
Van Gulik also said she hoped more women would be recognised in future by the Nobel committee.
Lots of people are pointing out on Twitter that Tawakul Karman being awarded the Nobel peace prize has not even been mentioned on Yemeni state TV - perhaps not surprising given that she is a vociferous critic of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The Guardian's Tom Finn has been reporting from Yemen on the uprising and has witnessed Tawakul Karman's role in it. He told me:
She's played a very important part in the uprising in Yemen which is now entering its eighth month. She was one of the first people to take to the streets of Sana'a back in January when protests were just breaking out and was on the stage calling for marches right when the protests were still small and vulnerable she was essentially at the head of those small protests which then built into this huge movement which we're seeing now ...It's also, I imagine, a recognition of the years of work she's been doing long before the uprising in Yemen. She set up an organisation called Women Journalists without Chains and she's been holding protests outside prisons calling for the release of prisoners of conscience, demanding the rights of female journalists. So clearly it's a recognition of years of work and struggle essentially, and of course that she's a woman and that she's been seen as an inspiration for many Yemeni women and Arab women across the Middle East.
There are elements of controversy surrounding her. She's well known for a very brave and aggressive style. She's the one who you'll find on stage calling on protesters to march even when they're being shot at and I know of some protesters who don't favour that approach which often can end in bloodshed and violence. There is an element of controversy, unsurprisingly, around figures like this who are known by lots of people in Yemen. But the main feeling I'm getting is that this is just a massive celebration. It's nothing but good news for Yemenis and for their country.
Johnson-Sirleaf has commented on winning the prize:
This gives me a stronger commitment to work for reconciliation. Liberians should be proud.
The chairman of the Norwegian Nobel committee, Thorbjørn Jagland, was asked about awarding the prestigious prize to Johnson-Sirleaf so close to Liberia's election, which will take place on Tuesday. He responded:
We cannot look to that domestic consideration. We have to look at Alfred Nobel's will, which says that the prize should go to the person that has done the most for peace in the world.
Buttons from Johnson-Sirleaf's presidential campaign say: "Ellen She's Our Man." Opponents in the presidential campaign have accused her of buying votes and using government funds to campaign. Her camp denies the charges. Buttons from her presidential campaign say: "Ellen She's Our Man."
African and international luminaries welcomed the news.
Archbishop Demsmond Tutu, who won the Nobel peace prize in 1984 for his non-violent campaign against apartheid, said:
Who? Johnson Sirleaf? The president of Liberia? Oooh. She deserves it many times over. She's brought stability to a place that was going to hell.
The U2 frontman, Bono, attending Tutu's 80th birthday party in Cape Town, called her an "extraordinary woman, a force of nature and now she has the world recognize her in this great, great, great way."
Here is some more on joint winner Leymah Gbowee from the Associated Press:
Gbowee, who organized a group of Christian and Muslim women to challenge Liberia's warlords, was honored for mobilising 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".
Gbowee has long campaigned for the rights of women and against rape. In 2003, she led hundreds of female protesters through Monrovia to demand swift disarmament of fighters who preyed on women throughout Liberia during 14 years of near-constant civil war.
Gbowee works in Ghana's capital as the director of Women Peace and Security Network Africa. The group's website says she is a mother of five."I know Leymah to be a warrior daring to enter where others would not dare," said Gbowee's assistant, Bertha Amanor. "So fair and straight, and a very nice person."
She says:
We put 250 women out. In five days we registered 7,455 first-time voters. We got Africa's first elected female president [Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf] and now we have a whole population of women that will not shut up.
Two Arab spring activists, both Egyptian, who were themselves tipped as possible winners of the Nobel peace prize (see 9.40am) have taken to Twitter to offer their congratulations to winner - and fellow Arab - Tawakul Karman.
Hearty Congrats to Tawakul Karman as she made us all proud :) Our ultimate prize is a democratic Arab World that respects human rights.
Esraa Abdel Fattah (@Esraa2008)
Congratulation for Tawakal and all Arab women, I'm so proud of Egyptian and Arab youth
The global campaign organisation, Avaaz, has urged the world to act in Yemen following the award of the Nobel peace prize to Tawakul Karman.
Campaign director Alice Jay said:
The Nobel tribute to Karman for her bravery and resilience gives hope and inspiration to the people of Yemen, and all those peacefully protesting for democracy in the Arab spring. The world should now back this woman's call for change with prompt action to end Saleh's brutal regime
Karman herself told Avaaz:
This award is not for me rather for the millions who have been marching. The Yemeni revolution is finally getting international recognition. We need to continue seeking international pressure on the oppressive Saleh regime in order for this prize to be of greater value
Speaking from Aden, Atiaf Al Wazir, a leading Yemeni woman blogger, said:
Everyone is celebrating in Yemen today, it shows there is solidarity with the Yemeni people. This is not only a great day for women's rights but also for the peaceful uprising. It is wonderful that Yemen is now being recognised for peace and not just for terrorist links. I was very touched she dedicated the award people to the people of Yemen and those who have died for the movement. This will give the Yemeni youth hope after nine long months of struggle – to know the world is watching.
I'm going to wrap up the blog now. Thanks for all your comments. Here's a recap of events.
• The 2011 Nobel peace prize was awarded jointly to two Liberians, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and peace activist Leymah Gwobee, who mobilised women to help end the war in Liberia, and to the Yemeni journalist and human rights activist, Tawakul Karman. Karman set up an organisation called Women Journalists without chains and has been a key figure in the uprising against President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
• The Nobel peace prize committee said 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".
• Karman dedicated her award to the Yemeni people and called on the international community to give it value by putting pressure on the Saleh regime. Sirleaf-Johnson said Liberians should be proud and said ti gave her "a stronger commitment to work for reconciliation".