Nobel Prize of Peace

The Nobel Prize of peace reward “personality more or having best contributed to the bringing together of the people, the removal or the reduction of the standing armies, the meeting and the propagation of progress for peace” according to the wills, defined by will, of Alfred Nobel. That includes/understands the fight for peace, the human rights, the humanitarian aid, freedom. In Le Monde of yesterday ( Die Welt von Gestern. Erinnerungen eines Europäers ), Stefan Zweig tells us that Florence Nightingale would have been at the origin of the foundation of this price as convincing Alfred Nobel to repair “the evil which it had caused with his dynamite”.

The price of the year can be divided between two, even three personalities or institutions. It was allotted for the first time in 1901.

No reward was decreed during the two world wars (except in 1917 and 1945) and the years when no candidate could achieve the unanimity.

Initially Western, the origin of the candidates gradually extended to the whole world. The Nobel Prize of peace has today an extraordinary political importance, certain prices having a value of disavowal of authoritative governments.

Certain nominations had a particular resonance as that of Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 which was strongly disputed because Roosevelt was militarist. One can also quote that of the German journalist anti-nazi Carl von Ossietzky in 1935.

As a whole, the Nobel especially went to historical names of the humanitarian action, fight against political oppression or of the defense of the levelling right such as Albert Schweitzer, Martin Luther King, Mère Teresa, and Aung San Suu Kyi.

As had decided it Alfred Nobel, the prizes winner of the Nobel Prize of peace are chosen by a committee named by the Norwegian Parliament , the others Nobel Prize are selected by the academic Institution Swedish. Moreover, contrary to those, decreed at the time of a royal ceremony the December 10th with Stockholm, the Nobel of peace is given to Oslo. It is equipped with an amount of 10 million Swedish crowns (a little more than one million Euros).

Nominations and operating process

The nominations for this distinction are the fruit of proposals argued and detailed, emitted by personalities qualified in policy and international diplomacy with knowing of the members of National Assemblies or legislative Congresses, cerles of eminent professors in university in the field of the Géopolitique, the Droit and the Political sciences, of former prizes winner of the price, the large magistrates specialized in the International law, of the special advisers of the Norwegian Committee creates especially for this branch. Each year, on a few thousands of proposals, 199 of them are initially kept before a preliminary series of candidatures is not subjected to sworn price which draws up in spring a final list of five names or group of names and structures bound by the same diplomatic action. The prizes winner are elected after débâts, discussions and votes closed in October. Their identity is revealed at the time of an official press conference in the old city of Oslo. The nominations are normally held with the secrecy even if several of them are known and médiatisées., in particular those ranging between 1901 and 1955 When these lists were revealed with the press, one could discover that Adolf Hitler had been a time named in 1939 by Erik Brandt, member of the Swedish Parliament, before this one did not reconsider its decision a few days later. Other proposals for this kind were submitted to the Committee such as Joseph Stalin and Benito Mussolini.

Criticisms and polemics

Contrary to the other prices, retrospective, developing the work of a life in Sciences or Literature, the Nobel of peace often distinguished a particular action without this one not being inevitably subjected the time proof: that of a person or a structure who solved a conflict international and worked out a peaceful concensus. In fact, several rewards were allotted without taking into account neither the past or even the future of the prize winner, nor his policy and its intermediate acts often in contradiction with the definition of the price. This largely gave in doubt the credibility even legitimacy of the distinction when it returned to personalities such as Theodore Roosevelt, Anouar el-Sadate, Menahem Begin, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin, Yasser Arafat, the Duke Tho and Henry Kissinger: choices as sulfurous as discussed. Consequently, since 2005, the Nobel Committee affirmed publicly that the price would not return any more but to people, groups or organizations which will have engaged their existence with the service of the Human rights, of the promotion of the democratic model as well as defense of the ways of the Diplomatie. The other criticizes important made with sworn of the Nobel relates to the notable omission in its prize lists of individuals whose contributions for peace were unanimously greeted. The list of large forgotten includes/understands the Mahatma Gandhi, the Pope Jean XXIII, the Pope Jean Paul II, Steve Biko, Raphael Lemkin, Herbert Hoover, César Chávez, Jose Figueres Ferrer, and Oscar Romero. The ousting of the large Indian leader Gandhi was highly criticized, including in the public statements several members of the Committee. This last admitted besides having named it in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947 and, finally, a few days before its assassination: in January 1948. In 1948, it had refused to allot a price, judging that “there was no adapted alive candidate”. The omission of Gandhi unamimement was publicly and unamimement regretted by the later members of the Norwegian Committee. Later, when the the 14th Dalaï Lama was rewarded in 1989, the president of the Committee stated that this decision was “partly a homage to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi.”. The last and important reproach made to the Nobel relate to the effectiveness and the actual value of this reward when it returned to personalities whose diplomatic efforts were also judged " vains" that " stériles" , following the example old US president Jimmy Carter, ex general secretary of the the United Nations: Kofi Annan or of the current director of the International Atomic Energy Agency: Mohamed El Baradei.

List prizes winner of the Nobel Prize of peace

Sworn Nobel Prize of peace

Current members of the Norwegian Committee:

Ole Danbolt Mjøs (born in 1939), Professor in medicine and politician, member of the Kristelig Folkeparti. Member of the Committee since 2003.

Bank Furre (born in 1937), Professor in theology and deputy, member of the Parliament and leader of the Norwegian Socialist party. Member of the Committee since 2003.

Sissel Marie Rønbeck (born in 1950), deputy, director of the Norwegian Cultural Heritage (Riksantikvaren), old elected with the Parliament and ex-member of the ministerial cabinet of the Left Work. Member of the Committee since 1994.

Inger-Marie Ytterhorn (born in 1941), political ex-adviser of the parliamentary group of the Fremskrittspartiet and former member of Parliament. Member of the Committee since 2000.

Kaci Kullmann Five (born in 1951), old elected with the Parliament and ex-member of the ministerial cabinet for the trade-union dialog, attached to the European Businesses for the Høyre. Member of the Committee since 2003.

External bonds

Site of the Norwegian Committee
Official site of the Nobel Prize

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