BRUSSELS — In a campaign designed to honour women working for peace across the globe, a Belgian sister in the Indian city of Mumbai is one of 1,000 women to be nominated for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.

The initiative to nominate Jeanne Devos originates from Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold, a member of the Switzerland Parliament and the Council of Europe, newspaper ‘Het Laatste Nieuws’ reported.

During her travels across the globe, Vermot-Mangold has been impressed by the large number of women working at various levels for peace and will nominate 1,000 of them for the Nobel Prize.

The list of Nobel nominees was announced on Wednesday and included Belgian nun Devos who works for the Sisters of the Hunt in Mumbai. The nomination project is dubbed ‘1,000 peace women’.

Devos was born in 1935 and has been working for the rights of children since 1965. In 1985, she established the national Domestic Workers Movement (NDWM) in Mumbai. The NDWM is now active in 18 Indian states.

It reports the abuse of domestic personnel and campaigns for the rights of women and children in domestic service.

As a representative of Indian bishops, Devos has also protested at conferences held by the United Nations and Unicef against child labour, child prostitution and child soldiers.

On her initiative, the NDWM played an important role in emergency aid after the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster of December 2004.
 
Just 12 women have won the Nobel Prize since the prize was first awarded in 1901.

[Copyright Expatica News 2005]

Subject: Belgian news