How Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee defines peace

Leymah: “I’ve always maintained that peace is not just the absence of war, but the presence of conditions that dignifies all.”

Liberian activist Leymah Gbowee was one of three women awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 for their work to advance the safety and rights of women and their participation in peace-building processes.

Leymah: “I think it’s important that we talk about those conditions that dignify people: right to life, right to food, the basic human security needs, and all of those things. And if you look around, specifically in Liberia, you see that, while the guns have been silenced for the last 20 years, people still live in abject poverty. Life is very difficult for many. But if we even look back at the war years, people are still struggling with trying to find justice, or just even if you consider now in West Africa, there are many countries that are currently going through military coups and other things. And a lot of those coups that these countries are seeing are because of corruption, people’s needs not being met, injustices, and you just name it. Today, peace is not just about the silence of the guns. And that’s the advocacy that I am pushing, that we should not just look at any wars, the physical fight, without looking to deep under the roots of why these wars started. And it doesn’t just apply to Liberia or our region but, again, the world.”