Abstract
Jody Williams was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines in 1997. She is the chairwoman of the Nobel Women’s Initiative, which was established by the sister Nobel Peace Laureates in 2006. Williams is also the first Nobel Laureate since Jane Addams to teach social work. As a longtime grassroots activist, she urges individuals to take action for a better world. This article includes excerpts from an interview in which Williams shares her insights with social workers, students, and educators about activism, social work, and justice and equality for women.
Keywords
Peace is not just the absence of war. It’s a world with justice and equality. It’s a world where the basic needs of the majority of the people on our planet are met. If we stop spending money on war and the weapons of war, we’d have more than enough to invest in these basics of long-term peace. People should have basic housing, access to medical care, education, and work. Everyone should have clean drinking water and food to eat every day.
Jody Williams
In 1997, the Nobel Peace Prize was jointly awarded to Jody Williams and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL). When Williams was invited by the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation and Medico International to coordinate organizational efforts to address the global problem of landmines, the idea for the ICBL was born in late 1991 (Williams, 2004). In early 1992, Williams became the sole staff member working with these two nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Later that year, the International Campaign was formally launched when four additional organizations (Handicap International, Human Rights Watch, Mines Advisory Group, and Physicians for Human Rights) joined the group to work toward the common goal of banning antipersonnel landmines (Williams, 1997). The ICBL’s organizing work has been critical for millions of individuals, families, communities, and countries throughout the world. Landmines never sleep and continue to kill and maim long after wars and conflicts have ended (United Nations Children's Fund [UNICEF], 2011). In landmine-contaminated countries, all aspects of daily life are affected directly or indirectly. It is important to note that landmines affect the poorest members of society, often women, children, and civilians (Roberts & Williams, 1995). As Princess Diana (1997, pp. 2–3) explained, “These mines inflict most of their casualties on people who are trying to meet the most elementary needs of life. They strike the wife or the grandmother gathering firewood for cooking. They ambush the child sent to collect water.”
Williams went to work immediately as the ICBL coordinator, using her grassroots organizing skills. To build the ICBL, she tirelessly contacted many organizations, including those that had any relation with landmines. She was in constant contact with ICBL member organizations and regularly distributed information to other organizations that focused on their common goal of banning antipersonnel landmines (Williams, 2011). The ICBL especially gained credibility through the dissemination of data and field knowledge (Borrie, Brehm, Cattaneo, & Atwood, 2009) and soon generated enough momentum and pressure to reach its goal (Williams, 2011). (For more information on ICBL’s organizing process and lessons learned in citizen diplomacy 10 years after the Mine Ban Treaty was signed, see Williams & Goose, 2008.) Even Princess Diana became a royal champion of the Landmine Ban and helped to bring ICBL into public view (Cable News Network [CNN], 1997).
Under Williams’s leadership, the ICBL had grown exponentially to more than 1,000 organizations in more than 60 countries by 1997 (Williams, 1997). During the same year, she served as the ICBL spokesperson and chief strategist as the campaign worked cooperatively with governments, UN organizations, and the International Committee of the Red Cross to achieve the goal of an international treaty banning antipersonnel landmines (which is known as the Ottawa Convention; United Nations Office of Geneva, 2011). It is remarkable that within about 5 years, the ICBL achieved its goal, and 122 countries signed the international treaty known as the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines, and on their Destruction (Williams, 1997). The treaty was a global step forward for human security and a major milestone in history because it was the first time a widely used conventional weapon was completely banned (Williams, 2009). Initially, some governments had negative responses to the ICBL because as an NGO and civil society representative, it was working outside traditional diplomatic circles. Nevertheless, many other governments worked with the ICBL, and a successful model of citizen diplomacy was soon born (Williams & Goose, 2008). Williams (2009) also noted that the ICBL’s “model of civil society partnering with governments to effectively deal with a problem inspired others to use the model to address other issues (p. 2).”
Since 1998, Williams has served as an International Campaign Ambassador for the ICBL and speaks throughout the world, continuing to advocate for the cause. She currently works with the Cluster Munition Coalition and the ICBL in support of their work on the 2008 Cluster Munitions Treaty, which imposes a ban on these munitions worldwide. Since the United States has never signed the Ottawa Convention or the Cluster Munitions Treaty, Williams is continually lobbying and advocating for the Obama administration to step up, support international humanitarian law, and sign the treaties. As a passionate activist, she appears regularly on international and national television and radio programs for the ICBL, woman’s human rights, and other important issues. She is also a prolific writer and has contributed numerous book chapters, written articles that have appeared in many outlets across the world, and coauthored books, such as the classic After the Guns Fall Silent: The Enduring Legacy of Landmines (Roberts & Williams, 1995). Many videos of her speeches are also accessible via the Internet. In all her communications, she definitely depicts an honest and straightforward advocate who uses her voice for those who do not have one, especially women.
Williams was named 1 of the 100 most powerful women in the world by Forbes Magazine and is regularly acknowledged for her global contributions to human rights and global security (MacDonald & Schoenberger, 2004). It is important to understand her background, which she freely shares to urge others to engage in activism. Even though she is a Nobel Laureate, she has often said that she did not originally know what she wanted to accomplish in life. She went to school at the University of Vermont, where she majored in psychology and had significant experience in languages and earned a bachelor of science degree in 1972. She then went on to earn a master’s degree in teaching Spanish and English as a second language from the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont, in 1976. Then, she went to Mexico to teach English, but, as she noted, she was still not sure of her path. She also taught English in the United Kingdom and then in Washington, DC, after she returned to the United States in 1978. Williams attended Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, where she earned a degree in international relations in 1984 (Frängsmyer, 1998; Nobel Laureate Jody Williams on Joy, 1998).
A door flew wide open in Williams’s life in 1981, when she was handed a leaflet near a Washington, DC, Metro stop that said “El Salvador: Another Vietnam?” The flyer referred to the U.S.-backed civil war in El Salvador. The question intrigued her because she had been involved in the Vietnam War protest movement and now wanted to know more about U.S. involvement in El Salvador. The impact of the flyer was the spark for her activism path in life, and she became passionate about stopping another U.S.-backed war (Williams, 2011). Soon she was working as the coordinator of the Nicaragua-Honduras Education Project, which involved leading fact-finding delegations to the region for 2 years. Then, she worked as the deputy director for Medical Aid for El Salvador and developed humanitarian relief projects for the organization (Nobel Women’s Initiative [NWI], 2011). Although Williams credits the impact of the leaflet for her activism path, she also acknowledges that while growing up, she regularly defended her brother, who was deaf and had schizophrenia, from other youths in the neighborhood who would bully him. That was her early experience with activism and empathy (Williams, 2011).
It is clear that Williams truly discovered and is continuing to follow a significant path in life. Generously sharing her life experience with others throughout the world, she urges and encourages audiences of hundreds and thousands to get involved in bringing about positive social change. In fact, she is a strong proponent of individual citizens’ abilities to shape the world through their individual and collective activism. In her frank and down-to-earth manner, she clarifies that she does not just mean “getting out there and voting” but also participating, volunteering, and contributing to an important cause of one’s own choice (Emery, 2003). Williams (2006) once stated the following on National Public Radio, “I believe it is possible for ordinary people to achieve extraordinary things. For me, the difference between an ‘ordinary’ and an ‘extraordinary’ person is not the title a person might have, but what that person does to make the world a better place for us all.” Williams’s activism is a clear example of how individuals can join together and have a positive impact on our complex world. She often reminds audiences that it is never too late to make a difference.
Congruent with her path, Williams is also dedicated to educating the rising generation, as is evidenced by her longtime involvement with PeaceJam, a worldwide organization of young people and Nobel Peace Prize winners. She contributes to the youth leadership program and its mission by inspiring young people to create “positive change in themselves, their communities, and the world” (PeaceJam, 2011). The social work profession has also benefited greatly from Williams because she educates many future social workers at the Graduate College of Social Work at the University of Houston in her course on global justice. She has taught at the college since 2003, when she was named Distinguished Visiting Professor of Global Justice. In 2007, she was appointed the Sam and Cele Keeper Endowed Professor in Peace and Social Justice (NWI, 2011). Dr. Ira Colby, Dean of the Graduate College of Social Work, invited Williams to teach there because he clearly recognized the importance of educating social work students about global justice and international social work. He noted the milestone that Williams is the first Nobel Peace Prize winner since Jane Addams to hold a faculty appointment in a school of social work (Colby, 2003).
In 2006, Williams became the chairwomen of the NWI when Nobel Peace Laureates Shirin Ebadi, Wangari Maathai, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, Betty Williams, and Mairead Corrigan Maguire joined together to bring their “extraordinary experiences in a united effort for peace with justice and equality” (NWI, 2011). Women’s human rights issues and peace with justice and equality are at the forefront of NWI’s mission. The NWI is also a clear example that Williams will always be a grassroots organizer, leveraging collective efforts for impactful social change wherever she is. One can only imagine that this dynamic group of women is a force to reckon with, and, in fact, it is a powerful force that all of us can join with to advocate for women internationally. One of NWI’s current projects is promoting a coalition effort aimed at ending rape and gender violence in conflict, which Williams discusses in the interview that follows.
While it is not possible to discuss all her activism work in this article, one endeavor that must be mentioned is that she led the high-level mission on Darfur in February and March 2007 for the United Nations Human Rights Council. That mission revealed countless horrors and atrocities of war especially perpetrated upon women (Williams, 2007). Williams said that working for peace is hard work everyday, and you have to be willing to put yourself on the line (Williams, 2011). Her leadership of the Darfur mission is a clear example of an activist standing up to the international community, even when doing so is not popular.
The following is an excerpt from an interview with Williams, in which she shared her insights specifically for social workers, students, and faculty about the NWI’s work, activism, women’s human rights, and social work practice and education (both domestically and internationally). Her insights are of key significance for social workers whose mandate is literally to change the world. May her advice and experiences bolster and sustain you in your work (both personally and professionally) and call you to take action or to continue to do so to shape the world.
The Interview
How did the Nobel Women’s Initiative come about, and what is the initiative’s main mission?
It grew out of conversations with Shirin Ebadi, myself, and then Wangari Maathi in Nairobi, Kenya, at the end of 2004. Actually, Shirin had posed the question: Since there is a critical mass of us, shouldn’t we band together and create some project or initiative that can support women working for peace—with justice and equality? There are six of us and obviously Aung San Suu Kyi who could not communicate with us at the time because she was under house arrest by the Burmese military junta, but who now can and has become an honorary member. So, that was the basic idea, not that we would necessarily create new work, but that we would try to use our access to shine the spotlight on those who are doing great work already. And with the idea that when it would help, we would support them by visiting their work, issuing a press release or letter of support, or in any number of different ways. That was in 2004. Then I raised some money and hired Liz Bernstein, who had stepped down as coordinator of the ICBL at the end of 2004, for the group, and we launched the Nobel Women’s Initiative in January 2006. Liz is the executive director, we have a small staff, and our office is in Ottawa. I’m the chairwoman. It is a great group.
What is it like working together for women’s human rights issues and justice across the globe?
Mostly it is fantastic. If you can imagine that six women who have received the Peace Prize are pretty well formed, and we are pretty strong-willed women. So sometimes we have some spirited discussions, but we all respect each other and the work we have done and continue to do. Overall, I think the initiative is really amazing, and I love working with the other women. I just think we need some more women recipients of the Peace Prize, but the Nobel Committee continues to be a little too sexist.
Last year you led a women’s peace delegation from the Nobel Women’s Initiative to Israel and Palestine, and it was your first time in the region. People often say that the conflict there seems never ending. What were your impressions about the women activists in that region working toward peace?
Their resilience and commitment to seeing beyond the warmongering I find tremendously inspiring. They are a remarkable example to me and another reason why women need to be involved in peace negotiations, as outlined in UN Security Council Resolution 1325. Such resolutions need to be implemented, especially in that situation where women are really taking the lead trying to deal with meaningful peace. I am not talking about the posturing between the Palestinian and Israeli governments, I am talking about a vision for a different kind of Middle East. The women need to be at the table to have this possibility of creating a sustainable peace with justice and equality.
Would you please give some background on some of the women Nobel Laureates and what they focus on?
Obviously, each received the Peace Prize for a different type of work. Shirin Ebadi (Iran) is the first Muslim woman to receive the Peace Prize, and the main focus of her work is peace and democracy in Iran. She is tireless and is now in exile. Shirin has not seen her husband since the elections there in June 2009. He cannot leave, and if she goes back, she would be immediately arrested. Wangari Maathai’s (Kenya) main focus is democracy and the environment. Mairead Maguire (Ireland) focuses on support for Palestine. She was the impetus for NWI’s delegation to Palestine and Israel last year. She is an amazing human. Betty Williams (Ireland) works on children’s issues. Rigoberta Menchú Tum (Guatemala) focuses on indigenous issues in Guatemala and ran for president of Guatemala in 2007. She is running again and is using it as a tool to educate indigenous people about participatory democracy. If they really want to have a role to play in that country, they need to get involved in voting and electing candidates who reflect their world vision, their hopes, and their aspirations. Right now, my focus is primarily on the NWI as the chair, keeping everything on track and moving the initiative forward. We are becoming involved in a new effort that we are spearheading, which is an international campaign to stop rape and gender violence in conflict. This campaign is in the nascent stages. We held our conference, Women Forging a New Security: Ending Sexual Violence in Conflict, outside Ottawa in May 2011. It was fantastic, with 120 women from all over the world, including, of course, Israel and Palestine, strategizing together about what the components of such an effort would be and bringing their experiences to bear. Some of the women there have experienced their own violence in conflict. It was by far the most dynamic conference we have hosted to date. NWI holds a conference every other year on a different issue. This is the first time though that it is going to result in creating a specific project with colleagues and other organizations, so it will be interesting to see how that develops. I think it is exciting and also obviously daunting. Sexual violence in war is a reflection of general inequality. If women around the world really had equality, I think incidences of sexual violence would be much less. If a woman is an object or your possession or less than a second-class citizen, she is an object you can do with what you will. My first real look at violence toward women during war was when I led a high-level mission on Darfur for the Human Rights Commission in 2007. The rape there was and is a tactic of the war in order to divide families. If they divide enough families in the community and then in enough communities of an ethnic group or in area of a country, they destroy the social fabric of the group. I believe that in that circumstance, it is definitely a tactic to destroy ethnic groups—their bonds and social structures. It was done in Rwanda and Bosnia, and it goes on in the eastern part of Burma and, of course, in the Congo, which is right now the most egregious case. It is horrifying.
What gives you hope?
I think nothing is going to change until women stand up and say, “no more” and press governments to implement both UN resolutions on these issues. Women must push governments to create their own domestic legislation and action plans of how they are going to implement and promote Resolutions 1325 and 1820. (UN Security Council Resolution 1325 recognizes and calls for women’s full participation in achieving peace and security, and UN Security Council Resolution 1820 calls for an awareness of sexual violence in conflict and seeks to end it.) Without civil society consistently pressing governments, they are not going to do anything. It is unfortunate, but it is true. That is how we got the Landmine Treaty because we consistently pushed governments and made them participate in treaty negotiations. ICBL continues to press them to implement the treaty. I think collective effort requires that the “me” becomes “we.” That is why we are successful. The leaders in the campaign rose naturally by virtue of the work they did, not because somebody decided they were executive director or gave them some title. It is because they did the work. And all the organizations and individuals really pulled together in that campaign as a “we,” and that makes a huge difference in how you work.
That is excellent advice for social workers and community organizers.
Yes, I think is really is. We bring about change in the world through many individual acts, but when those many acts are coordinated, such collaborative efforts are much stronger and proceed faster. If you are battling an issue by yourself, it can be isolating and demoralizing, but when you are part of a larger effort with people who share your views, it gives you strength. And, it gives whatever your effort is more vibrancy because everybody brings different talents and skills to what you are trying to accomplish. That is what we had in the landmine campaign. There were multisector organizations that worked on international law, humanitarian organizations that worked with the survivors, mine-clearance organizations that took mines out of the ground, grassroots activists like myself, and Vietnam vets. Each of us had different skills, and the amazing complexity of the campaign was the result of the different sectors and people in it. All were given the space to use their own talents to move the campaign forward. When I think about it, it is really amazing.
You have been teaching at the University of Houston in the Graduate College of Social Work since 2003. What are some of the vital skills that students are challenged to learn and gain in your global justice course?
First of all, one of the skills is to look at their work in the community with a global perspective. For example, Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States now and is one of the most diverse, with many groups of immigrants from around the world. As a social worker who will try to provide services to different immigrant or refugee populations, one must understand where people come from. That is absolutely critical to being able to really help them. So, for example, if the person is a refugee who has fled the unrest in Somalia, you simply cannot treat him or her the way you would treat a lifelong American in need of services. That alone is a huge challenge. It has always been gratifying to watch students’ minds open throughout the course as they really understand how connected everything is. We all recognize connectedness in little ways. But when you are specifically looking at it and thinking about how it affects you as a social worker and how you can better interact with your clients, it is pretty amazing. And students begin to recognize there is such a thing as international social work, and some want to pursue it. I did not realize that international activism is international social work. I call myself a grassroots activist and I am proud of being one, but I also recognize that I am an international social worker. Also in our course, the students are required to get together in small groups, pick a topic, and create an advocacy project around it. Students experience strategizing together, making a plan of action, carrying it out, and seeing what happens. I would venture to say that most of the students have never done so before, so it is a huge challenge. It is exciting and also terrifying. I think most students who come through the program are amazed by it all. They find it totally daunting at first. On the other side, they see how it will affect their work in a positive way. It also opens their minds to find other people in their profession to work on efforts in which they share a vision for the same outcomes. Again, I have to commend the vision of the dean of the college who hired me because he recognized the need to place social workers in a more international context. It has been a learning experience for me as well. I watch the students work together, learning about the issues that they choose. They experience positives and negatives and analyze what worked and what did not. It is pretty terrific. I enjoy it.
From your perspective, what is one of the most important skills or characteristics that social work students need to develop to contribute to peace as you have defined it?
I would say that when you are working with a client, it is more than providing services. It is trying to help promote a system that functions with justice and equality. It is treating the social work client not like some sort of beggar, but as a human being who deserves equality in the system. It should be a system that provides for justice and equal opportunities for everybody. I think that really understanding where social work fits in the larger system and how social workers interact with other professionals is vital. Another key is seeing how individuals can work with others in different disciplines and their own profession to help promote more justice and equality. Without that, you do not have sustainable peace.
What practical advice do you have for American social workers, as well as students and faculty, who would like to work or research abroad?
There is pretty much nothing like getting up and going somewhere else and experiencing it. An internship, a semester abroad, volunteering, some experience in another culture where you get a sense for yourself of how disorienting it can be. If I go somewhere, I have no idea about and do not understand the culture, I am kind of at the mercy of the people who live there. I would imagine it would be very eye-opening to social workers to experience a new culture, and it would give them a broader kind of empathy to approach diverse clients. I think it is like daring to do a little more than you normally would.
Sometimes social workers have the tendency to try and transpose Western models on other parts of the world. What do you think about that and some of the dangers in doing so?
A community knows what it needs, so coming from this cultural context and trying to transpose models does not work. I think it is totally incorrect to go somewhere else and think that because you are American, you are the best, no question, and you do not have to understand other people’s cultures, they just have to understand you. That is a recipe for disaster, and it is very self-defeating.
What encouragement or advice do you have for social work educators who work in their homelands and may face large humanitarian crises?
It is all about finding people who share what you want for your country and culture and finding ways to integrate that into what you do. It is always making the “me” into “we,” whether you are an American doing so or you are somebody in the Middle East in the so-called Arab Spring. That is how those people are managing and implementing change, it is by making the “me” a “we.”
Is there any other advice you’d like to share with social workers, students, and faculty?
I think I have said a lot to the students. I think faculty members need also to come out of their silos. There is that symbolism of the university as an ivory tower divorced from reality. It is pretty easy to have that happen. Teaching is not just sitting in your office. And I do not mean ‘just’ because teaching is hard work. But when it is not connected somehow to broader life experience, it seems somehow isolated and makes it harder to help any student connect to the broader reality we face in today’s world.
What words of vision would you give to those who want to work for women’s justice issues and human rights?
I would say it is networking with international organizations that work on the issues. For example, there is AWID (Association of Women’s Rights in Development), which is a huge network of women. JASS (Just Associates) is another example, and it is an international feminist organization that works on participatory democracy and empowerment. I suggest finding an organization that corresponds with your vision and making sure you like how it operates and become a part of it—even as a volunteer. It does not mean you have to change your life and become a lifelong activist. But I think we are strengthened when we learn how to network and work with others. All you have to do is Google the issue and find the organizations working on it. It is not like the old days when I was growing up and the information was not readily out there. Today there is no excuse.
Is there anything else that comes to mind that you would like to share?
If anyone is interested in volunteering on a campaign to stop gender violence in conflict, look at our website (Nobelwomensinitiative.org).
Conclusion
When Jody Williams was approached about creating a landmine campaign, it was 1991 in a small Washington, DC, office with two other people. She questioned herself, wondering if anyone would care or if anyone would respond. Then, she decided that “the only way to answer those questions was to accept the challenge” (Williams, 2006). What transpired in the next 5 years is now a remarkable part of world history for peace, human security, and especially for collective efforts and grassroots organizing.
Are we ready for a collective challenge of reaching out to shape the world for women? The world may see social workers, students, and professors as “ordinary,” but as Williams (2006) said, “If enough ordinary people back our desire for a better world, with action, … we can, in fact, accomplish extraordinary things.” Many of us are committed and acting for change already, but is there more that we can do in our lives to contribute to changing egregious inequalities that exist for women globally?
Williams states that the people who especially inspire her and keep her going are those who are not well known. It is those who are on the front lines risking their lives, such as the women human rights defenders in Mexico who challenge their governments and the military (Williams, 2011). Let us take action and support these women and others who are risking their lives for women’s basic human rights because, as Williams (2006) reminded us, “The only thing that changes this world is action.”
Footnotes
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.