Zafar Shayan
“What I consider to be peace is a sustainable peace in which the majority of people on this planet have access to enough resources to live dignified lives.”
– Jody Williams
Jody Williams is an American political and human rights activist who won the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for her campaigns to ban landmines. She was born in 1950 in in Vermont, United States. She got her master’s degree in International Relations from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in 1984 and a master’s degree in teaching English and Spanish form the School for International Training.
During her studies she was also teaching English as a Second Langue in Mexico and the US. After finishing her studies in 1984, Williams immediately started working as the coordinator of the Nicaragua-Honduras Education Project. From 1986 to 1992, she was involved with aid works in war-torn El Salvador, where landmines in those areas were constant threat to civilians. She had the responsibility of providing artificial limbs for children who had lost their arms and legs.
In 1992, Williams worked as the founding coordinator of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), which was launched by six nongovernmental organizations. She has overseen the expand of the campaign to more than a thousand NGOs in sixty countries, currently 1,300 NGOs in ninety countries. She acted as the leader, spokesperson and strategist of the campaign. Through the ICBL, she worked with government’s, UN bodies and International Committee of the Red Cross and finally, in 1197, she accomplished her goal of an international treaty banning antipersonnel landmines during the diplomatic conference held in Oslo, Norway.
As the coordinator of ICBL, she has given speeches on landmine ban in different countries and conferences including the UN, the European Parliament, the Organization of African Unity. Also, she has written articles and several scientific studies on mine disasters in different aspects and their consequences, which were published in prestigious international journals in various countries.
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The Nobel Prize: www.nobelprize.org