Tawakkol Karman

Tawakkol Karman, a Yemeni journalist and human rights activist, is the first Arab woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Known as the “Mother of the Revolution”, “The Iron Woman”, and “The Lady of the Arab Spring”, Karman led hundreds of protests against Yemen’s dictatorial regime, advocating for democracy and freedom of speech. She founded Women Journalists Without Chains and the Peaceful Revolutionary Youth Council, facing imprisonment and persecution for her active engagement in these causes. She played a pivotal role in pressuring former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who ruled from 1978 to 2012, to relinquish power. 

Karman came forward as a courageous leadership figure during the Arab Spring in 2011 and was praised for her efforts against tyranny in the Arab world and for promoting reconciliation between Shia and Sunni Muslims, countering terrorism, and fostering dialogue between Islam and other religions. Karman's extensive influence is recognised globally. TIME Magazine listed her as one of the 17 Most Rebellious Women in History and one of the most influential women of the past century, featuring her on the cover of their 100 Strong Women in the World issue as a 'Torchbearer of the Arab Spring'. She is also recognised by Foreign Policy magazine as one of the FP Top 100 Global Thinkers and named among the most powerful women by many international media outlets and organisations such as CNN, BBC, and Reporters Without Borders. 

Karman continues her struggle against tyranny, wars, and terrorism worldwide and advocates for expression rights, democracy, and development. She was appointed by the former UN Secretary-General to the High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda. She serves on the boards of several key international institutions and organisations, including the Nobel Women’s Initiative, Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), and the Facebook and Instagram International Oversight Board. Her Tawakkol Karman Foundation plays an important role in development by building schools, fighting poverty, and supporting health institutions in Yemen. 

More about Tawakkol Karman and the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize 

Photographer: Abdullah Al-harazi. 

Megan Davis

Megan Davis is the Pro Vice-Chancellor Society at UNSW Sydney, holds the Balnaves Chair in Constitutional Law and the Whitlam Fraser Harvard Chair in Australian Studies at Harvard University and is a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School. She is a renowned constitutional lawyer and public law expert, specialising on Indigenous peoples and the law, the constitutional recognition of First Nations and democracy.  

She has been the leading Australian lawyer on constitutional recognition of First Nations peoples for two decades and designed the Referendum Council’s deliberative process that led to the Uluru Statement from the Heart. She is the co-chair of the Uluru Dialogue – the group of First Nations leaders who led the Uluru Statement from the Heart work. She is a globally recognised expert in Indigenous people’s legal rights and was elected by the UN Economic and Social Council as an expert member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (2011–2016), and was also appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council to the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous peoples twice (2017–2022).

Owen Gaffney

Owen Gaffney is a writer, analyst and strategist. He is Chief Impact Officer at Nobel Prize Outreach. Owen co-founded the Exponential Roadmap Initiative and co-leads the Earth4All initiative. He has held positions at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Stockholm Resilience Centre, Future Earth, Global Commons Alliance and the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme.