Manila: Government peace negotiator Miriam Coronel-Ferrer was given the 2015 Hillary Clinton Award for her role in peace process with Moro rebels, a report reaching Manila said.
Coronel-Ferrer, a former political science professor at the University of the Philippines, was handed the 2015 Hillary Clinton Award for Advancing Women in Peace and Security on April 22 (early morning of April 23 in Manila) during a luncheon ceremony held at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
Ambassador Melanne Verveer, Executive Director of the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, and former US Ambassador for Global Women’s Issues was quoted as saying during the event that the award honours her “indefatigable work to bring about peace in the Philippines and for [her] historic role as the first female chief negotiator to sign a comprehensive peace agreement”.
Coronel-Ferrer, who is in her fifties, is the Philippine government’s chief negotiator in talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
She had been serving under that position since 2012 when the peace process with the MILF shifted to high gear.
Named after the former US Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham-Clinton, the award extols the role of women as “agents of change, and drivers of progress, and … makers of peace”.
In an email, Coronel-Ferrer wrote that being given the Hillary Clinton Prize is a great honour.
“It reflects the wisdom in the path to a negotiated political solution that we have forged in the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro,” she said.
The award likewise recognised the important role women must play in attaining peace and security in their communities and in the world.
“I speak especially of the women in the Bangsamoro [Moro Nation], who have endured the burden of strife, and who must now secure their places in the public sphere as equal partners in peace and development,” she said.
Ferrer shares this year’s award with Italian-Swedish diplomat, Ambassador Staffan de Mistura, who was appointed in July 2014 by UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon as special envoy to the Syria crisis.
The award is the second major peace prize received by Coronel-Ferrer since she assumed the post as government lead negotiator with the MILF.
In October 2014, her efforts were recognised by a UN supervised Asian award-giving body for her role in the peace process with the MILF.
N-Peace Awards also hailed Coronel-Ferrer for being the “world’s first woman to sign a major peace pact” as chief negotiator.
An an academic, she is also known for her peace and humanitarian advocacies in the Philippines as well as abroad.
In 2005, she was one of 27 Filipinos nominated to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
