Nobel Peace Prize

after accepting the Nobel Peace Prize]]

The Nobel Peace Prize is one of five Nobel Prize s bequested by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel . Ironically, as some point out, Alfred Nobel was the man whose Invention s include Dynamite and Ballistite , which led to the Death of millions of people. He created the Nobel Prize in an effort to make up for what he believed to be past evils. According to the will of Alfred Nobel, the prize should be awarded "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for Fraternity between the Nation s, for the abolition or reduction of standing Armies and for the holding and promotion of Peace Congress es".

The Peace Prize is awarded annually in Oslo , the Capital of Norway , unlike the prizes in Physics , Chemistry , Medicine and Literature , which are awarded in Stockholm , Sweden . For the past decade, the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony has been followed the next day by the Nobel Peace Prize Concert , which is broadcast to over 150 countries and more than 450 million households around the world. The Concert has received worldwide fame and the participation of top celebrity hosts and performers.

APPOINTMENT PROCESS

in Oslo , Norway .]]
The ) was the first national legislature to vote support for the international peace movement and Nobel's admiration of Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson , the Norwegian patriot and leading author at that time.

NOMINATIONS

Nominations for the prize may be made by a broad array of qualified individuals, including former recipients, members of national assemblies and congresses, university professors, international judges, and special advisors to the prize committee. In some years as many as 199 nominations have been received. The nominations are kept secret by the committee which asks that nominators do the same. Over time many individuals have become known as "Nobel Peace Prize Nominees", but this designation has no official standing {Link without Title} . Nominations from 1901 to 1951 have been released in a database. When the past nominations were released it was discovered that Adolf Hitler was once nominated in 1939, though the nomination was retracted in February of the same year. Other infamous nominees included Joseph Stalin and Benito Mussolini .

Unlike the other Nobel Prizes, the Nobel Peace Prize may be awarded to persons or organizations that are in the process of resolving an issue, rather than upon the resolution of the issue. Since the prize can be given to individuals involved in ongoing peace processes, some of the awards now appear, with hindsight, questionable, particularly when those processes failed to bear lasting fruit. For example, the awards given to Theodore Roosevelt , Yasser Arafat , Lê Ðức Thọ , and Henry Kissinger were particularly controversial and criticized; the latter prompted two dissenting committee members to resign {Link without Title} . The Nobel Committee has also received criticism from right-wing groups who see their decisions as guided by an apparent left-wing bias.

In 2005, the Nobel Peace Center opened, to present the laureates, conflicts, and work for peace around the world.

LAUREATES

List of Nobel Prize laureates in Peace from 1901 to the present day.

CONTROVERSY

The Nobel Peace Prize has throughout its history sparked controversy. The parliament of Norway is responsible for appointing the Peace Prize committee. Pacifist critics argue that the same parliament has pursued partisan military aims by ratifying membership in NATO in 1949, by hosting NATO troops, and by leasing ports and territorial waters to US ballistic missile submarines in 1983, making Norway less worthy to issue the Peace Prize. By contrast Sweden, which awards the other Nobel Prizes, has remained neutral.

A particular claimed weakness of the Nobel Peace Prize awarding process is the swiftness of recognition. The scientific and literature Nobel prizes are usually issued in Retrospect , often two or three decades after the intellectual achievement, thus representing a time-proven confirmation and balance of approval by the established academic community, seldom contradicted by newer developments. In contrast, the Nobel Peace prize at times takes the form of Summary Judgment , being issued in the same year as or the year immediately following the political act. 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. The fight against Communism is played out most noticeably. This situation may be said to deprive the 'real' peace makers, who may not be recognized for their long-term or subtle approaches. However, others have pointed to the Uniqueness of the Peace prize in that its high profile can often focus world attention on particular problems and possibly aid in the peace-efforts themselves.

When looked at more closely, the peace-laureates often have a lifetime's history of working at and promoting humanitarian issues, as in the examples of German medic Albert Schweitzer , Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. , an African-American Christian Civil Rights activist (1964 laureate); Mother Teresa , a Catholic missionary nun (1979 laureate); and Aung San Suu Kyi , a Buddhist nonviolent pro-democracy activist (1991 laureate). While still others are selected for tireless efforts, as in the examples of Jimmy Carter and Mohamed ElBaradei . Others, even today, are quite controversial, due to their recipients political activity, like Henry Kissinger , Mikhail Gorbachev and Yasser Arafat (who has had previous affiliation with terrorism). It´s also surprising that people like Mahatma Gandhi , pope John XXIII , Steve Biko , Hélder Câmara , Raphael Lemkin and Oscar Romero never won the Nobel Peace Prize.

SEE ALSO

EXTERNAL LINKS

Norwegian Nobel Committee

The Nomination Database for the Nobel Prize in Peace, 1901-1951

Nobel Prize for Peace Better World Links

Information About

Nobel Peace Prize