What you need to know about the Nobel Peace Prize
History, general information and interesting facts
History
The Nobel Prize was established by Alfred Nobel, a Swedish chemist and philanthropist well-known as the inventor of the dynamite. He is the man behind these prizes. In his last will written in 1895, Nobel considered only four prizes, in these following fields: physiologist or medicine, chemistry, physics, and literature; in 1969 a prize for economics was added.
The source of inspiration for Nobel’s peace thinking was the intellectual relationship with Baroness Bertha von Suttner. She is the first woman in history who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1905, for her activity in favour of the European peace movement during the end of 19th century: she founded the Austrian Peace Association, which Nobel was a member and financially supporter, and she wrote the famous pacifist novel Die Waffen niede! (Lay down your arms!).
General information
Since 1901 (in 114 years up to now), the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to 130 people and organizations/institutions circa, 95 times; but 19 times the prize wasn’t assigned. This exception occurred, for example, during the Second War World: the Statutes of Nobel Foundation establishes that if there is no one who deserves the prize, it shall be saved for the next year.
In his testament Nobel affirmed: “the prizes for champions of peace shall be awarded by a Committee of five persons to be allocated by the Norwegian Storting (the Norwegian Parliament).”. The Committee with other experts names
“individuals and organizations whom, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind”.
Candidates must be presented to the Committee before February 1st of each year; a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize may be submitted by any person who meets the nomination criteria: the Committee can’t consider a direct or a after death candidacy.
There has been 273 candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize for 2015: 68 of these are organisations, and 205 are persons. (Data from Nobel Foundation)
The prize can be awarded to an individual or to an association or organization: only 64 times was assigned to an individual/organization/association alone; only 5% of Laureates are women (16 in total).
The stately ceremony for the assignment of the prize takes place every year on December 10th (the anniversary of Nobel’s death).The event is held in the auditorium of Oslo City Hall. The nomination process starts in September and at the begin of October the Nobel Committee communicates Laureate’s names.
Nobel Laureates receive a diploma and a gold medal. The amount of money(700,000–800,000 euros or more) for peace activity is conferred only after a Nobel Laureate’s conference takes place around the day of the ceremony. This amount can change every year because it comes from the fund established after Nobel’s death with the estate that he deviated from his international holding company, several factories circa situated in several countries.
Interesting facts
The United States of America is the nation with the highest number of Nobel Peace Laureates, there have been 22 in total. Great Britain and Switzerland follow with 13 and 11 respectively.
The Red Cross has won the prize three times and the United Nations has won it twice.
The only Italian to have won this prize was the journalist and patriot Ernesto Teodoro Moneta (1907).
It was never given to the Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi, even if he was nominated in several years.
Among the strangest stories, there was the nomination of Adolf Hitler. His nomination was submitted to the Committee in 1934 (the motivation was that he didn’t invade Austria).
The only time that the peace prize was neglected was in 1973 when the revolutionary and diplomatic Vietnamese La Duc Tho didn’t accept the prize because in his country there wasn’t real peace.
Sources:
- Livia Malcangio, Being Nobel, third edition, Germany, Elanders 2015.
- Nobel Foundation
