born Oct. 9, 1950, Putney, Vt., U.S.
American activist who in 1992 helped found the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL).
In 1997 she and the ICBL were named corecipients of the Nobel Prize for Peace. She coordinated the launch of the ICBL with the cooperation of six international organizations, with the mission to abolish the use of antipersonnel land mines, of which tens of millions lay unexploded in more than 70 countries. Her efforts bore fruit in December 1997, when the Mine Ban Treaty was signed by more than 100 countries in Ottawa. By 2003 some 130 nations had ratified the treaty, but not the major mine-producing ones, such as the United States, Russia, and China. Williams was coauthor, with Shawn Roberts, of After the Guns Fall Silent: The Enduring Legacy of Landmines (1995).