Vital Voices Global Leadership Awards 2012

The Vital Voices Global Leadership Awards honor and celebrate women leaders around the world who are the unsung heroines working to strengthen democracy, increase economic opportunity, and protect human rights. Every year since 2002, we have gathered at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to recognize women who are social entrepreneurs, political representatives, businesswomen, human rights defenders and civil society advocates.

Rosana Schaack HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD

ROSANA SCHAACK

Liberian nurse who provides shelter and services to former child soldiers and survivors of gender based violence

Ruth Zavaleta Salgado LEADERSHIP IN PUBLIC LIFE AWARD

RUTH ZAVALETA SALGADO

Mexican politician and former speaker of the house of representatives who exposed widespread corruption within her own party

Adimaimalaga Tafuna'i ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT AWARD

ADIMAIMALAGA (ADI) TAFUNA’I

Samoan businesswoman who is innovating rural economic systems to produce local goods and stimulate trade in isolated communities throughout the Pacific region

Samar Minallah Khan FERN HOLLAND AWARD

SAMAR MINALLAH KHAN

Documentarian working in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier to produce films about women’s rights and child marriage

GLOBAL TRAILBLAZER AWARD:

Women Transforming the Middle East and North Africa

Marianne Ibrahim MARIANNE IBRAHIM

Coptic Egyptian who leads interfaith dialogue, trains women to run for office and has inserted herself into the drafting of the constitution to lobby for the inclusion of women’s rights

Amira Yahyaoui AMIRA YAHYAOUI

Tunisian blogger and fierce anti-censorship activist who has created the first NGO to monitor parliament and report on human rights abuses

Manal Alsharif MANAL ALSHARIF

Saudi woman who defied a cultural norm and was imprisoned after deciding to film herself driving, she is leading a national campaign for women’s right to drive

Salwa Bugaighis SALWA BUGAIGHIS

One of two Libyan women in the NTC, she resigned from the council because she felt women’s presence was nominal and now works outside the system to mobilize women candidates for this summer’s election

Shatha Al-Harazi SHATHA AL-HARAZI

Journalist who reported on human rights for the Yemen Times and other outlets gained national attention as a social media influencer

They are the women we invest in; theirs is the leadership that improves our world.

On June 6, at the Opera House of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, we celebrated the 15th anniversary of the very first Vital Voices conference held in Vienna, Austria. This conference spearheaded the Vital Voices Democracy Initiative and led to the inception of Vital Voices Global Partnership.

Vital Voices: The Power of Women Leading Change Around the World

El-Hibri Charitable Foundation and Social Welfare Institutions of Lebanon – Dar al Aytam Host Dedication Ceremony of Ibrahim El-Hibri Campus