Explainer: How does the Nobel Peace Prize work?
Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Barack Obama – these are all former winners of the Nobel Peace Prize.
The 2021 winner will be awarded in Oslo on October 8th.
Here’s a look at how the award works.
The prize should go to 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."
That's according to the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel who was the inventor of dynamite and founded the awards.
Bjoern Vangen is a librarian at the Norwegian Nobel Institute.
"On a general basis, the Peace Prize is given out not for people being angels or saints, but for people making an effort to make a better world. A better organized world and a world with less war and more peaceful coexistence between the peoples."
Thousands of people can propose names:
- members of governments and parliaments
- current heads of state
- university professors of history, social sciences, law and philosophy
- and former Nobel Peace Prize laureates, among others.
This year there are 329 nominees, although the full list will be kept locked away in a vault for 50 years.
Five people form the Norwegian Nobel Committee are appointed by the Norwegian parliament.
Members are often retired politicians, but not always.
The current committee is led by a lawyer and includes one academic.
Nominations close on Jan. 31.
The committee establishes a shortlist and meets roughly once a month to discuss the nominations, usually making a decision at the beginning of October.
What does a laureate get?
A medal, a diploma, ten million Swedish crowns which is about $1.1 million - and immediate global attention.
Who's on this year's list?
Norwegian lawmakers surveyed by Reuters have included:
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, jailed Russian activist Alexei Navalny, and the World Health Organization on their lists.
The 2021 Nobel Peace Prize will be announced just three weeks before world leaders gather for the COP26 climate summit.
Henrik Urdal is the director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo.
"There are a few other candidates this year that I think the committee would consider. One of the most important questions these days is of course climate change with the IPCC (The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) just launching their Sixth Assessment Report that is demonstrating that this is the major global threat that we're facing and I think some individuals or some organisations working for climate change action would be strong candidates."
