Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, her compatriot Leymah Gbowee and Yemen's women's rights activist Tawakkul Karman collected the 2011 Nobel peace prize here on Saturday.


The three Nobel Peace Prize laureates, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (R),
Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee (C) and Yemeni activist Tawakkol Karman
 receive the Nobel Peace Prize during a ceremony at the City Hall in Oslo, Norway, Dec. 10, 2011.


In an awarding ceremony in the Oslo City Hall, the three laureates spoke of the role of women in the development and social movements in their respective countries.

Among those who attended Saturday's ceremony were Norwegian King Harald V, Queen Sonja, Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit.

On Oct. 7, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced its decision to give this year's Nobel peace prize to the three women for "their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace building work."

Johnson-Sirleaf is Africa's first elected female president, and Gbowee is a Liberian activist who organized a peace movement which brought the Second Liberian Civil War to an end in 2003. Karman is a prominent women's right activist in Yemen.

Xinhua