Last year Liberia's president, the first female president in Africa Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work on women's rights.

But President Sirleaf is currently refusing to take a stance against rising homophobia in her country. Homosexual sex is already illegal in Mauritania, punishable by 1 year in jail, but new laws have been proposed that will not only increase those sentences, but also punish those that seduce a member of the same sex with 5 years in jail. Homophobic attacks are on the rise, and the perception amongst the general population is that homophobic attacks will not be investigated.

How can it be right that a leader who is allowing such hate crimes to go unpunished, and is refusing to take a stand against the growing institutionalised homophobia within her own government is awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace?

We call on the Norwegian Nobel Committee to revoke President Sirleaf's Nobel Prize until such a time as she takes a stand against hatred in all it's forms.