2017 Nobel Peace Nomination – Medea Benjamin

Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate, has nominated Medea Benjamin for the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize.

In her letter to the Nobel Peace Committee in Oslo Maguire said:

” I believe Medea Benjamin would be a worthy recipient of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize as she meets the requirements in Alfred Nobel’s will, which calls of the award to be given to the try champions of peace”.

Medea’s work for peace and disarnment and life commitment to such work is inspirational to us all.

Medea is the co-founder of the women-led peace group CODEPINK and the co- founder of the human rights group Global Exchange. While her anti-war work dates back to her high school years during the Vietnam War in the l960s and continued in Africa and Central America in the l970s and l980s her most important recent work has been in response to the 2001 9/11 attacks in the United States.
When the Bush Administration responded to those attacks by invading Afghanistan, Medea took 9/11 family members to Afghanistan to meet with the innocent victims of US bombing, then brought the 9/11 families to Washington over and over again to lobby for a compensation fund for the Afghan victims, something they achieved in 2005.

Medea was also a founder of the board US-based coalition of 1,500 groups called United for Peace and Justice co-ordinated anti-war activities throughout the United States. Globally she was one of the initiators of the 2002 World Social Forum call for a global day of action against the invasion of Iraq which happened on February 15th, 2003. The huge success of this call can be seen in the documentary ” We are Many ” chronicling the hundreds of massive protests the world over. Medea and her colleague, Jodie Evans, together with women in Iraq, set up the occupation watch centre to chronicle the activities of US/Coalition forces in Iraq.

Medea also spoke out about the treatment of prisoners held captive in Guantanamo including protesting at the site of the prison of Cuba.

Medea has also travelled extensive on peace missions to Israel/Palestine, North Korea, Middle East and many Latin American countries.

Medea is the author of nine books her recent being “Kingdom Of The Unjust”