The Nobel Peace Prize (Norwegian and Swedish: Nobels fredspris) is awarded annually by the Norwegian Nobel Committee "to the person who 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."[1] It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the 1895 will of Alfred Nobel (who died in 1896), awarded for outstanding contributions in chemistry, physics, literature, peace, and physiology or medicine.[2] As dictated by Nobel's will, the award is administered by the Norwegian Nobel Committee and awarded by a committee of five people elected by the Parliament of Norway.[3] The first Nobel Peace Prize was awarded in 1901 to Frédéric Passy and Henry Dunant. Each recipient receives a medal, a diploma, and a monetary award prize that has varied throughout the years.[4] In 1901, Passy and Dunant shared a Prize of 150,782 Swedish kronor, which was equal to 7,731,004 kronor in 2008. In 2008, the Prize was awarded to Martti Ahtisaari of Finland, who received the Prize amount of 10,000,000 kronor (slightly more than €1 million, or US$1.4 million).[5] The Peace Prize is presented annually in Oslo, in the presence of the King of Norway, on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death, and is the only Nobel Prize not presented in Stockholm.[6]
The prize is considered the most controversial of the Nobel Prizes with several of the selections having been criticised.[7][8] Despite having been nominated five times, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi never won the Prize. Following his assassination in 1948, the committee considered awarding it to him posthumously but decided against it and instead withheld the Prize that year with the explanation that "there was no suitable living candidate."[9] In 1961, Dag Hammarskjöld, who died after his nomination but several months before the announcement, became the only Laureate to be recognised posthumously; following this, the statutes were changed to make a future posthumous prize nearly impossible.[10] In 1973, Le Duc Tho declined the Prize, because "he was not in a position to accept the Prize, citing the situation in Vietnam as his reason."[11] Linus Pauling, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 1962, is the only person to have been awarded two unshared Nobel Prizes; he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954.[11]
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As of 2011, the Peace Prize has been awarded to 101 individuals and 20 organizations. Fifteen women have won the Nobel Peace Prize, more than any other Nobel Prize.[12] Only two recipients have won multiple Prizes: the International Committee of the Red Cross has won three times (1917, 1944, and 1963) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has won twice (1954 and 1981).[11] There have been 19 years since its creation in which the Peace Prize was not awarded, more times than any other Nobel Prize.
Year | Laureate | Country | Rationale | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1901 | Henry Dunant | Switzerland | For his role in founding the International Committee of the Red Cross[10][13] | |
Frédéric Passy | France | "[For] being one of the main founders of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and also the main organizer of the first Universal Peace Congress"[10][13] | ||
1902 | Élie Ducommun | Switzerland | "[For his role as] the first honorary secretary of the International Peace Bureau"[10][14] | |
Charles Albert Gobat | "[For his role as the] first Secretary General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union"[10][14] | |||
1903 | William Randal Cremer | United Kingdom | "[For his role as the] the 'first father' of the Inter-Parliamentary Union"[10][15] | |
1904 | Institute of International Law | Belgium | "[F]or its efforts as an unofficial body to formulate the general principles of the science of international law"[10][16] | |
1905 | Bertha von Suttner | Austria-Hungary | For authoring Lay Down Your Arms and contributing to the creation of the Prize[10][17] | |
1906 | Theodore Roosevelt | United States | "[F]or his successful mediation to end the Russo-Japanese war and for his interest in arbitration, having provided the Hague arbitration court with its very first case"[10][18] | |
1907 | Ernesto Teodoro Moneta | Italy | "[For his work as a] key leader of the Italian peace movement"[10][19] | |
Louis Renault | France | "[For his work as a] leading French international jurist and a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague"[10][19] | ||
1908 | Klas Pontus Arnoldson | Sweden | "[For his work as] founder of the Swedish Peace and Arbitration League"[10][20] | |
Fredrik Bajer | Denmark | "[For being] the foremost peace advocate in Scandinavia, combining work in the Inter-Parliamentary Union with being the first president of the International Peace Bureau"[10][20] | ||
1909 | Auguste Beernaert | Belgium | "[For being a] representative to the two Hague conferences, and a leading figure in the Inter-Parliamentary Union"[10][21] | |
Paul Henri d'Estournelles de Constant | France | "[For] combined diplomatic work for Franco-German and Franco-British understanding with a distinguished career in international arbitration"[10][21] | ||
1910 | Permanent International Peace Bureau | Switzerland | "[For acting] as a link between the peace societies of the various countries"[22][23] | |
1911 | Tobias Asser | Netherlands | "[For being a] member of the Court of Arbitration as well as the initiator of the Conferences on International Private Law"[10][24] | |
Alfred Fried | Austria | "[For his work as] founder of the German Peace Society"[10][24] | ||
1912 | Elihu Root[A] | United States | "[F]or his strong interest in international arbitration and for his plan for a world court"[10][25] | |
1913 | Henri La Fontaine | Belgium | "[For his work as] head of the International Peace Bureau"[10][26] | |
1914 | Not awarded | |||
1915 | ||||
1916 | ||||
1917 | International Committee of the Red Cross | Switzerland | "[For undertaking] the tremendous task of trying to protect the rights of the many prisoners of war on all sides [of World War I], including their right to establish contacts with their families"[10][27] | |
1918 | Not awarded | |||
1919 | Woodrow Wilson | United States | "[F]or his crucial role in establishing the League"[10][28] | |
1920 | Léon Bourgeois | France | "[For his participation] in both the Hague Conferences of 1899 and 1907" and for his work towards "what became the League to such an extent that he was frequently called its 'spiritual father'"[10][29] | |
1921 | Hjalmar Branting | Sweden | "[F]or his work in the League of Nations"[10][30] | |
Christian Lange | Norway | "[For his work as] the first secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee" and "the secretary-general of the Inter-Parliamentary Union"[10][30] | ||
1922 | Fridtjof Nansen | Norway | "[For] his work in aiding the millions in Russia struggling against famine" and "his work for the refugees in Asia Minor and Thrace"[31][32] | |
1923 | Not awarded | |||
1924 | ||||
1925 | Austen Chamberlain[A] | United Kingdom | For work on the Locarno Treaties[10][33] | |
Charles G. Dawes[A] | United States | "[F]or [work on] the Dawes Plan for German reparations which was seen as having provided the economic underpinning of the Locarno Pact of 1925"[10][33] | ||
1926 | Aristide Briand | France | For work on the Locarno Treaties[10][34] | |
Gustav Stresemann | Germany | |||
1927 | Ferdinand Buisson | France | "[For] contributions to Franco-German popular reconciliation"[10][35] | |
Ludwig Quidde | Germany | |||
1928 | Not awarded | |||
1929 | Frank B. Kellogg[A] | United States | "[F]or the Kellogg-Briand pact, whose signatories agreed to settle all conflicts by peaceful means and renounced war as an instrument of national policy"[10][36] | |
1930 | Nathan Söderblom | Sweden | "[F]or his efforts to involve the churches not only in work for ecumenical unity, but also for world peace"[10][37] | |
1931 | Jane Addams | United States | "[F]or her social reform work" and "leading the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom"[10][38] | |
Nicholas Murray Butler | "[For his promotion] of the Briand-Kellogg pact" and for his work as the "leader of the more establishment-oriented part of the American peace movement"[10][38] | |||
1932 | Not awarded | |||
1933 | Norman Angell[A] | United Kingdom | For authoring The Great Illusion and for being a "supporter of the League of Nations as well as an influential publicist [and] educator for peace in general"[39] | |
1934 | Arthur Henderson | United Kingdom | "[F]or his work for the League, particularly its efforts in disarmament"[10][40] | |
1935 | Carl von Ossietzky[B] | Germany | "[For his] struggle against Germany's rearmament"[10][41] | |
1936 | Carlos Saavedra Lamas | Argentina | "[F]or his mediation of an end to the Chaco War between Paraguay and Bolivia"[10][42] | |
1937 | Robert Cecil | United Kingdom | For his work with the League of Nations[10][43] | |
1938 | Nansen International Office for Refugees | Switzerland | For its work in aiding refugees[44] | |
1939 | Not awarded | |||
1940 | ||||
1941 | ||||
1942 | ||||
1943 | ||||
1944 | International Committee of the Red Cross | Switzerland | "[F]or the great work it has performed during the war in behalf of humanity"[45] | |
1945 | Cordell Hull | United States | "[For] his fight against isolationism at home, his efforts to create a peace bloc of states on the American continents, and his work for the United Nations Organization"[46] | |
1946 | Emily Greene Balch | United States | "Formerly Professor of History and Sociology; Honorary International President, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom"[47] | |
John Raleigh Mott | "Chairman, International Missionary Council; President, World Alliance of Young Men's Christian Associations"[47] | |||
1947 | Friends Service Council | United Kingdom | "compassion for others and the desire to help them"[48] | |
American Friends Service Committee | United States | |||
1948 | Not awarded because "there was no suitable living candidate." (A tribute to the recently-assassinated Gandhi, since the prize cannot be awarded posthumously.)[9] | |||
1949 | The Lord Boyd-Orr | United Kingdom | "Physician; Alimentary Politician; Prominent organizer and Director, General Food and Agricultural Organization; President, National Peace Council and World Union of Peace Organizations"[49] | |
1950 | Ralph Bunche | United States | "Professor, Harvard University Cambridge, MA; Director, division of Trusteeship, U.N.; Acting Mediator in Palestine, 1948"[50] | |
1951 | Léon Jouhaux | France | "President of the International Committee of the European Council, vice president of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, vice president of the World Federation of Trade Unions, member of the ILO Council, delegate to the United Nations"[51] | |
1952 | Albert Schweitzer | France | "Missionary surgeon; Founder of Lambaréné (République de Gabon)"[52] | |
1953 | George Catlett Marshall | United States | "General President American Red Cross; Former Secretary of State and of Defense; Delegate U.N.; Originator of [the] "Marshall Plan""[53] | |
1954 | United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees | Switzerland | "An international relief organization founded by the U.N. in 1951"[54] | |
1955 | Not awarded | |||
1956 | ||||
1957 | Lester Bowles Pearson | Canada | "former Secretary of State for External Affairs of Canada; former President of the 7th Session of the United Nations General Assembly";[55] "for his role in trying to end the Suez conflict and to solve the Middle East question through the United Nations."[10] | |
1958 | Georges Pire | Belgium | "Father in the Dominican Order; Leader of the relief organization for refugees "L'Europe du Coeur au Service du Monde""[56] | |
1959 | Philip J. Noel-Baker | United Kingdom | "Member of Parliament; lifelong ardent worker for international peace and co-operation"[57] | |
1960 | Albert Lutuli | South Africa | "President of the African National Congress,"[58] "was in the very forefront of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa."[10] | |
1961 | Dag Hammarskjöld[C] | Sweden | "Secretary General of the U.N.,"[59] awarded "for strengthening the organization."[10] | |
1962 | Linus Carl Pauling | United States | "for his campaign against nuclear weapons testing"[60] | |
1963 | International Committee of the Red Cross | Switzerland | [61] | |
League of Red Cross Societies | ||||
1964 | Martin Luther King, Jr. | United States | Campaigner for civil rights, "first person in the Western world to have shown us that a struggle can be waged without violence."[62] | |
1965 | United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) | United Nations | "An international aid organization." [63] | |
1966 | Not awarded | |||
1967 | ||||
1968 | René Cassin | France | "President of the European Court for Human Rights"[64] | |
1969 | International Labour Organization | United Nations | [65] | |
1970 | Norman E. Borlaug | United States | "International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center;"[66] "for his contributions to the "green revolution" that was having such an impact on food production particularly in Asia and in Latin America."[10] | |
1971 | Willy Brandt | West Germany | "Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany; for West Germany's Ostpolitik"[67] | |
1972 | Not awarded | |||
1973 | Henry Kissinger | United States | "For the 1973 Paris agreement intended to bring about a cease-fire in the Vietnam war and a withdrawal of the American forces"[68][10] | |
Le Duc Tho[D] | North Vietnam | |||
1974 | Seán MacBride | Ireland | "President of the International Peace Bureau; President of the Commission of Namibia."[69] "For his strong interest in human rights: piloting the European Convention on Human Rights through the Council of Europe, helping found and then lead Amnesty International and serving as secretary-general of the International Commission of Jurists"[10] | |
Eisaku Satō | Japan | "Prime Minister of Japan,"[69] "for his renunciation of the nuclear option for Japan and his efforts to further regional reconciliation"[10] | ||
1975 | Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov[E] | Soviet Union | "[for his] struggle for human rights, for disarmament, and for cooperation between all nations"[70] | |
1976 | Betty Williams | United Kingdom | "Founder[s] of the Northern Ireland Peace Movement (later renamed Community of Peace People)"[71] | |
Mairead Corrigan | ||||
1977 | Amnesty International | United Kingdom | "[for] protecting the human rights of prisoners of conscience"[72][10] | |
1978 | Mohamed Anwar Al-Sadat | Egypt | "for the Camp David Agreement, which brought about a negotiated peace between Egypt and Israel"[73] | |
Menachem Begin | Israel | |||
1979 | Mother Teresa | India | "Founder of Missionaries of Charity"[74] | |
1980 | Adolfo Pérez Esquivel | Argentina | "Human rights leader;"[75] "founded non-violent human rights organizations to fight the military junta that was ruling his country (Argentina)."[10] | |
1981 | United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees | United Nations | "An international relief organization founded by the U.N. in 1951"[76] | |
1982 | Alva Myrdal | Sweden | "[for] their magnificent work in the disarmament negotiations of the United Nations, where they have both played crucial roles and won international recognition"[77][78] | |
Alfonso García Robles | Mexico | |||
1983 | Lech Walesa | Poland | "Founder of Solidarność; campaigner for human rights"[79] | |
1984 | Desmond Tutu | South Africa | "Bishop of Johannesburg; former Secretary General, South African Council of Churches"[80] | |
1985 | International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War | United States | For "authoritative information and by creating an awareness of the catastrophic consequences of atomic warfare. The committee believes that this in turn contributes to an increase in the pressure of public opposition to the proliferation of atomic weapons and to a redefining of priorities, with greater attention being paid to health and other humanitarian issues."[81] | |
1986 | Elie Wiesel | United States | "Chairman of "The President's Commission on the Holocaust""[82] | |
1987 | Óscar Arias | Costa Rica | "for his work for peace in Central America, efforts which led to the accord signed in Guatemala on August 7 this year"[83] | |
1988 | United Nations Peace-Keeping Forces | United Nations | "[for] their efforts [that] have made important contributions towards the realization of one of the fundamental tenets of the United Nations"[84][85] | |
1989 | Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama |
Tibet | "In his struggle for the liberation of Tibet [he] consistently has opposed the use of violence. He has instead advocated peaceful solutions based upon tolerance and mutual respect in order to preserve the historical and cultural heritage of his people."[86][87] | |
1990 | Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev | Soviet Union | President of the Soviet Union, "for his leading role in the peace process which today characterizes important parts of the international community"[88] | |
1991 | Aung San Suu Kyi[F] | Burma | "for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights"[89] | |
1992 | Rigoberta Menchú | Guatemala | "[for] her work for social justice and ethno-cultural reconciliation based on respect for the rights of indigenous peoples"[90] | |
1993 | Nelson Mandela | South Africa | "for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa"[91] | |
Frederik Willem de Klerk | ||||
1994 | Yasser Arafat | Palestine | "to honour a political act which called for great courage on both sides, and which has opened up opportunities for a new development towards fraternity in the Middle East."[92] | |
Yitzhak Rabin | Israel | |||
Shimon Peres | ||||
1995 | Joseph Rotblat | United Kingdom | "for their efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international politics and, in the longer run, to eliminate such arms"[93] | |
Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs | Canada | |||
1996 | Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo | East Timor | "for their work towards a just and peaceful solution to the conflict in East Timor."[94] | |
José Ramos-Horta | ||||
1997 | International Campaign to Ban Landmines | Switzerland | "for their work for the banning and clearing of anti-personnel mines"[95] | |
Jody Williams | United States | |||
1998 | John Hume | United Kingdom | "for their efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict in Northern Ireland"[96] | |
David Trimble | United Kingdom | |||
1999 | Médecins Sans Frontières | Switzerland | "in recognition of the organization's pioneering humanitarian work on several continents"[97] | |
2000 | Kim Dae Jung | South Korea | "for his work for democracy and human rights in South Korea and in East Asia in general, and for peace and reconciliation with North Korea in particular"[98] | |
2001 | United Nations | United Nations | "for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world"[99] | |
Kofi Annan | Ghana | |||
2002 | Jimmy Carter | United States | "for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development"[100] | |
2003 | Shirin Ebadi | Iran | "for her efforts for democracy and human rights. She has focused especially on the struggle for the rights of women and children."[101] | |
2004 | Wangari Muta Maathai | Kenya | "for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace"[102] | |
2005 | International Atomic Energy Agency | United Nations | "for their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest possible way"[103] | |
Mohamed ElBaradei | Egypt | |||
2006 | Muhammad Yunus | Bangladesh | "for advancing economic and social opportunities for the poor, especially women, through their pioneering microcredit work"[104] | |
Grameen Bank | ||||
2007 | Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change | United Nations | "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change"[105] | |
Al Gore | United States | |||
2008 | Martti Ahtisaari | Finland | "for his efforts on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts"[106] | |
2009 | Barack Obama | United States | "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."[107] | |
2010 | Liu Xiaobo[G] | China | "for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China"[108] | |
2011 | Ellen Johnson Sirleaf | Liberia | "For their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work"[109] | |
Leymah Gbowee | ||||
Tawakel Karman | Yemen |
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