The award recognises the concept that women's rights and social and political harmony, in all societies but particularly in those damaged by war, are intimately connected
The pursuit of equal rights for women has been broadened in recent years with the growing recognition that the empowerment of women plays a vital role in the restoration of peace in societies divided by conflict and war. This is not a simplistic matter of men making war and women making peace, of one sex's aggressive drives being moderated by the other's supposedly gentler instincts. The argument instead is that a more equal relationship between the sexes can have a solvent effect on other inequalities and on attitudes of the kind that fuel conflict. It is also that when men and women make decisions together they generally make different and better decisions than when one sex assigns itself all executive responsibilities. Private life is thus linked to social and political life in a virtuous circle, the one benefiting the other. That is why this year's Nobel peace prize is to be especially welcomed.
It recognises the specific achievements of three individuals, but it also recognises the concept that women's rights and social and political harmony, in all societies but particularly in those damaged by war, are intimately connected. This idea is far from new, but it is probably fair to say that it has over the past 20 years been moving from the periphery to the centre. It animated UN security council resolution 1325, which pledged in 2000 that all barriers to women's "equal participation and full involvement in the maintenance and promotion of sustainable peace will be removed".
The gender dimension has become a commonplace at international conferences, while non-governmental organisations have steadily pushed it up their agenda. It has risen in prominence along with the understanding that women in many modern conflicts have been specifically targeted and victimised by soldiers, something especially true in a state like Liberia, from which two of the prizewinners come. But progress on the ground has nevertheless been much slower than elite discussion would suggest. This is not only the case in the poor and broken countries where the worst conditions prevail, but also in the rich countries and the international organisations which purport to be advancing the cause of women.
The United Nations, for example, has never appointed a woman chief mediator in peace talks, and the number of women in peacekeeping missions is extraordinarily low. A committee set up by Israeli and Palestinian women activists finds itself regularly consulted but never formally included in official peace discussions. The Nobel prize comes as a salutary reminder that we have been grandstanding on this issue for long enough and need to turn more vigorously to concrete action.
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