The Norwegian Nobel Committee said on Wednesday that 305 candidates had been nominated for the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize by the February 1 deadline, the lowest number in four years. The names of the 212 people and 93 organizations were not disclosed, according to committee practice.
The Oslo-based organization said there was a decrease from last year’s 343 applicants and that it was the lowest number of registered applicants since 2019. Over the past eight years, the annual number of applicants has exceeded 300, he said, adding that the interim record was set in 2016 with 376.
“Who nominates and who is nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize has been a secret for 50 years,” the very secretive Oslo council said in a statement.
A large group of people can submit a nomination for the prize: heads of state or nationally serving politicians, university professors, directors of foreign policy institutes, former Nobel laureates and members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
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However, those making the nomination may choose to make it public, increasing publicity for both the candidate and the proposer.
Norwegian MP Lan Marie Nguyen Berg of the Green Party named two climate activists, Swede Greta Thunberg and Ugandan Vanessa Nakate, “for the enormous mobilisation” on their continents.
A Nobel medal is displayed in New York December 8, 2020. The Norwegian Nobel Committee said on February 22, 2023 that 305 candidates, 212 individuals and 93 organizations, have been nominated for the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize. (Angela Weiss/Pool Photos via AP, File)
Thunberg has been nominated four times, including last year when the award went to human rights activists from Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.
The 2022 award was a sharp rebuke to Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose invasion of Ukraine disrupted decades of nearly unbroken peace in Europe, and to the Belarusian president, his authoritarian ally.
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On February 1, the director of the Peace Research Institute in Oslo, Henrik Urdal, selected human rights activists as his favorites to win the 2023 award. They included Narges Mohammadi, an Iranian human rights activist, and Mahbouba Seraj , an Afghan women’s rights activist; the representative of Myanmar to the United Nations, Kyaw Moe Tun; and the International Court of Justice based in the Netherlands, among others.
Urdal noted that 2023 was the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and that his list “reflects timely and dignified attention to human rights defenders and activists.”
The Nobel Peace Prize is presented in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, while the other awards are presented in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, in line with the wishes of the founder of the prize, Alfred Nobel.
Five Nobel laureates have been instituted under the terms of Nobel’s will. A sixth, for the economy, was created by the Central Bank of Sweden in 1968 in memory of the Nobel. Winners will be announced in early October.
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Winners receive their awards at award ceremonies held on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death in 1896. The award includes a diploma, a gold medal, and approximately $1 million in prize money, which is often shared .
The Nobel Peace Prize has always attracted more controversial or surprising candidates than its scientific cousins. Both Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump were nominated in 2021.
