Montreal June 06,2011 - Shirin Ebadi, Jody Williams and Mairead Maguire, three Nobel Peace Prize winners, have taken a position supporting he Canadian Boat to Gaza. Meeting at Montebello as part a conference on sexual violence toward women during political conflicts, organized by the Nobel Women's Initiative, all three have added their names to the list of international supporters of the project, which aims to break the illegal naval blockade that Israel has imposed on 1.5 million civilians living in Gaza.


A long-term engagement
Shirin Ebadi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her efforts to protect human rights, particularly the rights of women and infants, and political prisoners in Iran.

Jody Williams, an American, was awarded the Prize in 1997 for her persistent work to eliminate anti-personnel land mines. It was Mairead Maguire's efforts to end the violence in Northern Ireland, her birth-place, that were recognized when she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976.

Maired Maguire was also present at the press conference organized by the Canadian Boat to Gaza in Toronto, on May 26. "I completely support this call to the Israeli government to allow passage for the Canadian Boat to Gaza," she said. "This boat will join the flotilla of 10 vessels that will bring together almost a thousand people. They will show the people of Gaza that the world has not forgotten."