The Nobel Peace Prize gives winners a
huge platform and quite a lot of money.
It's worth just over $1 million
and ironically, the whole thing was the
idea of the man who invented dynamite.
Alfred Nobel was a Swedish scientist and
one of the wealthiest businessmen of his
time.
When he died in 1896, his will said his
fortune should be used to establish a
foundation for five prizes in physics,
chemistry, medicine, literature
and peace.
When it comes to the Peace Prize, Alfred
Nobel said the winner should be the
person who has done "the most or best to
advance fellowship among nations, the
abolition or reduction of standing
armies, and the establishment and
promotion of peace congresses".
But that's been interpreted in different
ways over the years by the Nobel Peace
Prize committee.
The very first prize was awarded in 1901, to
the Swiss humanitarian, Jean-Henri
Dunant and Frédéric Passy, the founder
of the first French peace society.
Since then there have been another 135
laureates. Some of the highest profile
and least controversial winners include
Martin Luther King ...
Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama, Nelson
Mandela and Malala Yousafzai. The
Pakistani advocate for childhood
education was also the youngest ever
winner—she was 17.
Organisations have sometimes won, too.
Like the UN World Food Programme, which won
last year. OK, so how are the winners
chosen? Well, it starts with the
nominations. To be eligible to submit a
nomination you have to fall into one of
nine categories. For example, members of
parliaments anywhere in the world,
university professors in certain
subjects, or previous winners. And that
range of people who can nominate has
made for some pretty strange nominees,
among them Hitler and Stalin back in the
day.
And we only know that now because the
actual list of nominees is kept secret
for 50 years.
Then we get to this election that's done
by the Norwegian Nobel Committee-a group
of five people chosen by the Norwegian
Parliament. And that's something that's
different about the Peace Prize because
all the other Nobel Prizes are decided
in Sweden. The Norwegian Committee
consults various advisers along the way,
but in the end it comes down to a
majority vote among its five members.
The thing is, to a lot of
people some of the committee's picks
have just seemed a bit off over the
years.
Henry Kissinger got it in 1973 for his
efforts to negotiate a ceasefire in the
Vietnam War when he was the US
secretary of state. That was despite his
alleged role in the US's devastating
bombing campaign in neighboring Cambodia.
The New York Times called it the "Nobel
War Prize" and two members of the
committee, who had voted against him,
resigned in protest.
And then there have been prizes which
were given as more of an encouragement,
where the committee hoped the prize
itself would further the cause of the
recipient. They've also been contentious.
Like when the European Union won in 2012
for helping to establish peace between
former enemies at exactly the time when
the eurozone financial crisis was
exposing all the cracks in the union.
Obama won less than a year into his
presidency. He hadn't really done much
yet and he was commander-in-chief of the
most powerful army in the world that had
thousands of soldiers in Afghanistan and
Iraq.
And that's another thing—
people sometimes question the Peace
Prize because some of the winners don't
end up being all that peaceful. So, you
can end up with a Nobel Peace laureate
like Ethiopian President Abiy Ahmed. He
won in 2019 for brokering peace with
Eritrea. But right now there's a civil
war going on in Ethiopia, where there
have been reports of massacres, rape and
torture on both sides. And Abiy is accused
of deliberately blocking the supply of
food and aid to people there who are
starving.
Then there's Aung San Suu Kyi, who won
back in 1991 for standing up for
democracy in Myanmar. But since then,
she's been accused of failing to condemn
her country's military for its role in
the targeted killing and displacement of
ethnic Rohingya. Now despite the
criticism, the Nobel rules say the
committee can't take back the prize.
From the Oscars to the
Pulitzers, in the end, most prizes are
about congratulating someone and
recognising something they've done. And
the Nobel Peace Prize is no different.
But, as well as that, it can also have
other really positive effects, like the
impact of the prize money. Remember, it's
worth more than $1 million.
There are also the benefits
that international fame and prestige can
bring.
But there can also be
downsides to all that attention—
like the political pressure.
So, let's go back to our question—
what's the point of the Nobel Peace
Prize?
Well, 120 years later we're obviously
still nowhere near world peace. But even
if it falls short of that—and let's be
honest, that's a pretty big ask—
it's still got a lot going for it.
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