Jody Williams (born October 9, 1950) is an American political activist known for her work in banning
anti-personnel
An anti-personnel weapon is a weapon primarily used to maim or kill infantry and other personnel not behind armor, as opposed to attacking structures or vehicles, or hunting game. The development of defensive fortification and combat vehicles ...
landmine
A land mine is an explosive device concealed under or on the ground and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets, ranging from combatants to vehicles and tanks, as they pass over or near it. Such a device is typically detonated automati ...
s, her
defense of human rights (especially those of
women
A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or Adolescence, adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female hum ...
), and her efforts to promote new understandings of
security" \n\n\nsecurity.txt is a proposed standard for websites' security information that is meant to allow security researchers to easily report security vulnerabilities. The standard prescribes a text file called \"security.txt\" in the well known locat ...
in today's world. She was awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiolo ...
in 1997
for her work toward the banning and clearing of anti-personnel mines.
Education
Williams earned a
Master in International Relations from the
Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (a division of
Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...
) in
Washington, D.C. (1984), an
MA in teaching Spanish and
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ...
as a second language from the
School for International Training (SIT) in
Brattleboro,
Vermont
Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provin ...
(1976), and a
BA from the
University of Vermont
The University of Vermont (UVM), officially the University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, is a public land-grant research university in Burlington, Vermont. It was founded in 1791 and is among the oldest universities in the Unite ...
(1972).
Advocacy
Williams served as the founding coordinator of the
International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) from early 1992 until February 1998. Before that work, she spent eleven years on various projects related to the wars in Nicaragua and El Salvador, where, according to the ''Encyclopedia of Human Rights'', she "spent the 1980s performing life-threatening human rights work."
In an unprecedented cooperative effort with governments, UN bodies and the
International Committee of the Red Cross
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC; french: Comité international de la Croix-Rouge) is a humanitarian organization which is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and it is also a three-time Nobel Prize Laureate. State parties (signato ...
, Williams served as a chief strategist and spokesperson for the ICBL, which she developed from two
non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in ...
s (NGOs) with a staff of one – herself – to an international powerhouse of 1,300 NGOs in ninety countries.
From its small beginning and official launch in 1992, Williams and the ICBL dramatically achieved the campaign's goal of an international treaty banning antipersonnel landmines during a diplomatic conference held in Oslo in September 1997. The
Ottawa Treaty that banned land-mines is credited to her and the ICBL.
Three weeks later, she and the ICBL were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. At that time, she became the tenth woman – and third American woman – in its almost hundred-year history to receive the Prize.
In November 2004, after discussions with Iranian Peace Laureates Dr.
Shirin Ebadi and Professor
Wangari Maathai of Kenya, Williams established the Nobel Women's Initiative which was launched in January 2006. Williams has since served as its chair. This initiative brought together six of the female Peace Laureates, the women seek to use their influence to promote the work of women working for peace with justice and equality. (
Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi (; ; born 19 June 1945) is a Burmese politician, diplomat, author, and a 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as State Counsellor of Myanmar (equivalent to a prime minister) and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2 ...
is an honorary member.)
In 2020, Williams called upon
Chevron corporation
Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation. The second-largest direct descendant of Standard Oil, and originally known as the Standard Oil Company of California (shortened to Socal or CalSo), it is headquartered in S ...
to pay cleanup costs to the residents of the
Lago Agrio oil field
The Lago Agrio oil field is an oil-rich area near the city of Nueva Loja in the province of Sucumbíos, Ecuador. It is located in the Western Oriente Basin. The site's hydrocarbon-bearing formations are the Cretaceous Napo and Hollin format ...
which were awarded in 2011 and have been in litigation ever since.
Williams is quoted as saying, "The image of peace with a dove flying over a rainbow and people holding hands singing kumbaya ends up infantilizing people who believe that sustainable peace is possible. If you think that singing and looking at a rainbow will suddenly make peace appear then you're not capable of meaningful thought, or understanding the difficulties of the world."
In 2019, Williams called for a treaty to end violence against women, in support of Every Woman Coalition.
Academic career
Since 2007, Williams has been the Sam and Cele Keeper Professor in Peace and Social Justice in the Graduate College of Social Work at the
University of Houston
The University of Houston (UH) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the List of universities in Texas by enrollment, university in Texas ...
. Before that she had been a distinguished visiting professor of global justice at the college since 2003.
Recognition
Williams continues to be recognized for her contributions to human rights and
global security. She is the recipient of fifteen honorary degrees. In 2004, in its first such listing, she was named by ''Forbes'' magazine as one of the 100 most powerful women in the world. She is one of the female Nobel Prize laureates to be recognized as a "Woman of the Year" by ''Glamour'' magazine – which has also honoured
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
,
Katie Couric
Katherine Anne Couric ( ; born January 7, 1957) is an American journalist and presenter. She is founder of Katie Couric Media, a multimedia news and production company. She also publishes a daily newsletter, ''Wake Up Call''. From 2013 to 2017, ...
and
Barbara Walters
Barbara Jill Walters (born September 25, 1929) is an American broadcast journalist and television personality. Known for her interviewing ability and popularity with viewers, Walters appeared as a host of numerous television programs, including ...
.
Publications
Williams work includes articles for magazines and newspapers, for example the ''Wall Street Journal'', ''International Herald Tribune'', ''The Independent'' (UK), ''The Irish Times'', ''The Toronto Globe and Mail'', ''Los Angeles Times'', ''La Jornada'' (Mexico), ''The Review of the International Red Cross'', Columbia University's ''Journal of Politics and Society''.
She added several chapters to numerous books:
* ''The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women'', edited by Jay Allison and Dan Gediman;
* ''A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant, and A Prayer''
* ''Lessons from our Fathers'', by Keith McDermott
* ''Girls Like Us: 40 Extraordinary Women Celebrate Girlhood in Story, Poetry and Song'', by Gina Misiroglu;
* ''The Way We Will be 50 Years from Today: 60 of the World's Greatest Minds Share Their Visions of the Next Half-Century''
* Williams co-authored a seminal book on the landmine crisis in 1995, ''After the Guns Fall Silent: The Enduring Legacy of Landmines''.
* Her book, released at the end of March 2008, ''Banning Landmines: Disarmament, Citizen Diplomacy and Human Security'', analyzes the Mine Ban Treaty and its impact on other human security- related work.
* In March 2013, her memoir, ''My Name Is Jody Williams: A Vermont Girl's Winding Path to the Nobel Peace Prize'',
was released.
See also
*
List of female Nobel laureates
*
List of peace activists
This list of peace activists includes people who have proactively advocated diplomatic, philosophical, and non-military resolution of major territorial or ideological disputes through nonviolent means and methods. Peace activists usually work wi ...
*
PeaceJam
PeaceJam is a US-based global youth organization led by Nobel Peace laureates. It was founded by musical artist Ivan Suvanjieff and his wife, the economist Dawn Engle in 1993.
PeaceJam was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize eight times.
Hi ...
References
External links
"An Individual's Impact on Social and Political Change" interview by Riz Khan on
Al Jazeera English
Al Jazeera English (AJE; ar, الجزيرة, translit=al-jazīrah, , literally "The Peninsula", referring to the Qatar Peninsula) is an international 24-hour English-language news channel owned by the Al Jazeera Media Network, which is o ...
, March 2011 (video, 25 mins).
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Jody
1950 births
Living people
Mine action
Nobel Peace Prize laureates
American Nobel laureates
American anti-war activists
American human rights activists
Women human rights activists
American humanitarians
Women humanitarians
University of Vermont alumni
SIT Graduate Institute alumni
Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies alumni
University of Houston faculty
Women Nobel laureates
People from Brattleboro, Vermont
Nonviolence advocates