2011 Nobel Peace Prize

The 2011 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkol Karman. The prize was announced by the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo on 7 October 2011.

The citation

The citation reads: "for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work". They share the prize equally.

The laureates

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was born in 1938 in Monrovia, Liberia. Leymah Gbowee was born in 1972 in Monrovia, Liberia. Tawakkol Karman was born in 1979 in Ta'izz, Yemen.

Why it matters

Johnson Sirleaf is the president of Liberia and Africa's first elected female head of state, Gbowee led a women's peace movement in Liberia, and Karman is a leading figure in Yemen's pro-democracy protests.

The prize

The prize is worth 10 million Swedish kronor, divided between the laureates. It will be presented in Oslo on 10 December, the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite whose will founded the prizes in 1895.