Human Rights Advocate of the Month

Nobel Lauriate Wangari Muta Maathai Awarded Jawaharlal Nehru award for International Understanding

	Wangari Muta Maathai, the Nobel Peace Laureate of 2004, is this year’s recipient of the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding

Wangari Muta Maathai, the Nobel Peace Laureate of 2004, is this year’s recipient of the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding, an award instituted in 1965 by the Republic of India to acknowledge outstanding contribution to international understanding, goodwill and friendship.

In presenting the award, the President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, described Professor Maathai as, ”an outstanding leader of Kenya, a symbol of empowered women of the world and a great environmentalist.”

Wangari Muta Maathai was born in Nyeri, Kenya in 1940. The first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree, Ms. Maathai founded the “Green Belt Movement” in 1977, which now counts 600 community networks across Kenya and branches in 20 countries that have planted more than 31 million trees.

She was imprisoned several times during the oppressive regime of President Daniel Arap Moi, who reigned from 1978 to 2002. She fought for multi-party elections and the elimination of corruption and tribal politics, and was elected to Parliament in 2002 with an overwhelming 98% of the vote. She has been serving as Assistant Minister for Environment and Natural Resources and Wildlife of Kenya since 2003. In accepting her award, Professor Maathai stated that marginalized people seek justice, and that “peace cannot be realized in the midst of injustice and inequality."