Margaret Owen OBE

2011 | New Year Honours

Margaret Owen OBE, For services to Human Rights particularly Widows Overseas

In 1994 she started Widowhood in Developing Countries concentrating at first on India, Bangladesh, Malawi, Kenya and Uganda. Her work on violence to women, poverty and traditional practices, AIDS, refugees and armed conflict was funded by the Swedish International Development Agency. In 1995 she launched the organisation Empowering Widows in Development. In 1996 she published A World of Widows and acted as an advocate for widows at international conferences. In 1997 she acted as a consultant for DfID writing analyses of widows in Mozambique after their war. From 1998-05 she chaired or contributed to various UN conferences on post-conflict reconstruction. In 2001 she set up the network Widows for Peace through Democracy as an off-spring of EWD and published Voices of Widows. She received her OBE in the New Year Honours List 2011.