During the Tibetan unrest of 2008, Woeser and her husband were put under house arrest after speaking to reporters. In December 2008 Woeser and her husband were among the first of the original 303 signatories to Charter 08, now joined by thousands more. Liu Xiaobo, the author of Charter 08, was sentenced for eleven years of prison and awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. In July 2009 Woeser and her husband were one of more than 100 signatories to a petition asking Chinese authorities to release detained ethnic-Uyghur professor of economics Ilham Tohti. When she was honoured with the Prince Claus Awards in 2011, she was forbidden to receive the prize in the Dutch embassy.