A NOBEL Peace Prize winner will be speaking at a peace conference in Hampshire this weekend.

Leymah Roberta Gbowee, leader of the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace that helped bring an end to civil war in her country in 2003, will speak at the University of Winchester’s PeaceJam event.

Along with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Tawakkul Karman, Leymah (pictured) was awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize “for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work”.

The Winchester conference will explore human rights and education.

Students will be also be given the opportunity to present their local community projects to an audience, as part of the One Billion Acts of Peace movement, which is part of the international PeaceJam programme. This is the third PeaceJam UK conference to take place at the university.

Caroline Millman, chair of PeaceJam UK, said: “The conference is a fantastic opportunity to connect students with some of the most inspirational people around the world who have worked to bring about real positive change.

“By sharing stories of strife, sacrifice and ingenuity we aim to motivate our youth to engage their communities with innovative and original projects.”

PeaceJam is an international programme for schools and youth groups and is unique as it is the only educational programme working directly with Nobel Peace Laureates.

PeaceJam itself has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize eight times.

The aims of the programme are to ‘teach and inspire a new generation to be active citizens and agents for change’ around the world.