Outstanding contributions topeace: arms reduction, international cooperation, and organisations contributing to peace, and human rights contributions to peace[1]
Since March 1901,[5] it has been awarded annually (with some exceptions) to people who have "done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion ofpeace congresses".[6]The Oxford Dictionary of Contemporary History describes it as "the most prestigious prize in the world".[7]
Due to its political nature, the Nobel Peace Prize has for most of its history beensubject to numerous controversies. The2025 prize was awarded toMaría Corina Machado "for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people ofVenezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy".[8]
Alfred Nobel, whose will established the Peace Prize
According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize is awarded to the person who in the preceding year "shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses".[9] Alfred Nobel's will further specified that the prize be awarded by a committee of five people chosen by the Norwegian Parliament.[10][11]
Nobel died in 1896 and he did not leave an explanation for choosingpeace as a prize category. As he was a trained chemical engineer, the categories forchemistry andphysics were obvious choices. The reasoning behind the peace prize is less clear. According to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, his friendship withBertha von Suttner, a peace activist and later recipient of the prize, profoundly influenced his decision to include peace as a category.[12] Some Nobel scholars suggest it was Nobel's way to compensate for developing destructive forces. His inventions includeddynamite andballistite, both of which were used violently during his lifetime. Ballistite was used in war[13] and theIrish Republican Brotherhood, an Irish nationalist organization, carried out dynamite attacks in the 1880s.[14] Nobel was also instrumental in turningBofors from an iron and steel producer into an armaments company.
There is a well known, but possibly apocryphal, story that in 1888, after the death of his brother Ludvig, several newspapers publishedobituaries of Alfred by mistake.[15] One French newspaper condemned him for his invention of military explosives and this is said to have brought about his decision to leave a better legacy after his death.[16] The obituary stated,Le marchand de la mort est mort ("The merchant of death is dead"),[16] and went on to say, "Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday."[17][18][16] However, it has been questioned whether or not the obituary in question actually existed.[18]
It is also unclear why Nobel wished the Peace Prize to be administered in Norway, which wasruled inunion with Sweden at the time of Nobel's death. The Norwegian Nobel Committee speculates that Nobel may have considered Norway better suited to awarding the prize, as it did not have the same militaristic traditions asSweden. It also notes that at the end of the 19th century, theNorwegian parliament had become closely involved in theInter-Parliamentary Union's efforts to resolve conflicts through mediation and arbitration.[12]
Each year, the Norwegian Nobel Committee specifically invites qualified people to submit nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize.[19] The statutes of the Nobel Foundation specify categories of individuals who are eligible to make nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize.[20] These nominators are:
Academics at the professor or associate professor level in history,social sciences, philosophy, law, theology and religion; vice-chancellors/presidents of universities and university directors (or their equivalents); directors of peace research institutes and foreign policy institutes
Previous recipients, including board members of organizations that have received the prize
Present and past members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee
The working language of the Norwegian Nobel Committee is Norwegian; in addition to Norwegian the committee has traditionally received nominations in French, German, and English, but today most nominations are submitted in either Norwegian or English. Nominations must usually be submitted to the committee by the beginning of February in the award year. Nominations by committee members can be submitted up to the date of the first Committee meeting after this deadline.[20]
In 2009, a record 205 nominations were received,[21] but the record was broken again in 2010 with 237 nominations; in 2011, the record was broken once again with 241 nominations.[22] The statutes of the Nobel Foundation do not allow information about nominations, considerations, or investigations relating to awarding the prize to be made public for at least 50 years after a prize has been awarded.[23] Over time, many individuals have become known as "Nobel Peace Prize Nominees", but this designation has no official standing, and means only that one of the thousands of eligible nominators suggested the person's name for consideration.[24] Indeed, in 1939,Adolf Hitler received a satirical nomination from a member of the Swedish parliament, mocking the (serious but unsuccessful) nomination ofNeville Chamberlain.[25] Nominations from 1901 to 1974 have been released in a database.[26]
Nominations are considered by the Nobel Committee at a meeting where a shortlist of candidates for further review is created. This shortlist is then considered by permanent advisers to the Nobel institute, which consists of the institute's Director and Research Director, and a small number of Norwegian academics with expertise in subject areas relating to the prize. Advisers usually have some months to complete reports, which are then considered by the committee to select the laureate. The Committee seeks to achieve a unanimous decision, but it is not always possible. The Nobel Committee typically comes to a conclusion in mid-September, but occasionally the final decision has not been made until the last meeting before the official announcement at the beginning of October.[27]
Obverse and reverse of Jimmy Carter's Nobel Peace Prize Medal
The Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee presents the Nobel Peace Prize in the presence of theKing of Norway and theNorwegian royal family on 10 December each year (the anniversary of Nobel's death). The Peace Prize is the only Nobel Prize not presented inStockholm. The Nobel laureate receives a diploma, a medal, and a document confirming the prize amount.[28] The money awarded varies over time, depending on the profitability of the Nobel bequest's investments and the exchange rate to the recipient's local currency. Around 2020, typical awards wereon the order of roughly 10 millionSEK, which translated to roughly 1 million USD.[3]
Since 1990, the ceremony has taken place atOslo City Hall. From 1947 to 1989, the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony was held in the Atrium of theUniversity of Oslo Faculty of Law, a few hundred meters from Oslo City Hall. Between 1905 and 1946, the ceremony took place at theNorwegian Nobel Institute. From 1901 to 1904, the ceremony took place in theStorting (Parliament).[29]
The medal for the Peace Prize was designed by the Norwegian sculptorGustav Vigeland in 1901. Vigeland's profile sculpture of Alfred Nobel differs fromErik Lindberg's profile of Nobel on the chemistry, literature, physics, and physiology or medicine medals. Thedies for Vigeland's peace medal were made by Lindberg as Vigeland was not an engraver.[30] The reverse of the medal features three men in a 'fraternal bond' and the inscription "Pro pace et fraternitate gentium" ("For the peace and brotherhood of men").[30] The edge of the medal is inscribed with the year of its awarding, with the name of its recipient and "Prix Nobel de la Paix".[30]
Some commentators have suggested that the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded in politically motivated ways for more recent or immediate achievements,[33] or with the intention of encouraging future achievements.[33][34] Some commentators have suggested that to award a peace prize on the basis of unquantifiable contemporary opinion is unjust or possibly erroneous, especially as many of the judges cannot themselves be said to be impartial observers.[35] Further criticism holds that the Nobel Peace Prize has become increasingly politicized, in which people are awarded for aspirations rather than accomplishments, which has allowed for the prize to be used for political effect but can cause perverse consequences including the breakdown of fragile peace processes due to the failure to account for the realities of power politics.[36]
In 2011, a feature story in the Norwegian newspaperAftenposten contended that major criticisms of the award were that the Norwegian Nobel Committee ought to recruit members from professional and international backgrounds, rather than retired members of parliament; that there is too little openness about the criteria that the committee uses when they choose a recipient of the prize; and that the adherence to Nobel's will should be more strict. In the article, Norwegian historian Øivind Stenersen argues that Norway has been able to use the prize as an instrument for nation-building and furthering Norway's foreign policy and economic interests.[37] In another 2011Aftenposten opinion article, the grandson of one of Nobel's two brothers, Michael Nobel, also criticised what he believed to be the politicisation of the award, claiming that the Nobel Committee has not always acted in accordance with Nobel's will.[38] AuthorChristopher Hitchens called the Nobel Peace Prize "a huge bore and a fraud" in his memoirHitch-22.[39]
Foreign Policy has listedCorazon Aquino,Mahatma Gandhi,Eleanor Roosevelt,Václav Havel, andKen Saro-Wiwa as people who "never won the prize, but should have."[58][59] The omission of Mahatma Gandhi has been particularly widely discussed, including in public statements by various members of the Nobel Committee.[60][61] The committee has confirmed that Gandhi was nominated in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947, and, finally, a few days before his assassination in January 1948.[62] The omission has been publicly regretted by later members of the Nobel Committee.[60]
Geir Lundestad, Secretary of Norwegian Nobel Committee in 2006 said, "The greatest omission in our 106-year history is undoubtedly that Mahatma Gandhi never received the Nobel Peace Prize. Gandhi could do without the Nobel Peace prize, whether Nobel committee can do without Gandhi is the question."[63] In 1948, following Gandhi's death, the Nobel Committee declined to award a prize on the ground that "there was no suitable living candidate" that year. Later, when theDalai Lama was awarded the Peace Prize in 1989, the chairman of the committee said that it was "in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi".[64]
^Aspøy, Arild (4 October 2011). "Fredsprisens gråsoner".Aftenposten (in Norwegian). p. 4.Nobelkomiteen bør ta inn medlemmer med faglig og internasjonal bakgrunn... som gjøre en like god jobb som pensjonerte stortingsrepresentanter.
^Nobel, Michael (9 December 2011)."I strid med Nobels vilje".Aftenposten (in Norwegian). Oslo, Norway.Archived from the original on 7 January 2012. Retrieved12 December 2011.
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