Yesterday we saw a huge stir in the media around the Nobel Peace Prize notably because Barack Obama was awarded the honour only 9 months into his presidency.
However, on showing my visitors around Oslo last week it suddenly occurred to me that not many people realise that the Nobel Peace Prize is the only Nobel Prize to be awarded in Norway. All other prizes are awarded in Stockholm on 10th December each year.
Alfred Nobel was a Swedish inventor and chemist and he established the prizes in his will in 1895 – most of which are mainly related to science and literature. The Nobel Peace Prize conveys social prestige and is often politically controversial. Nobel never really explained why he created a prize for peace but it’s thought that it came as a result of his friendship to peace activist Bertha von Suttner.
Either way, the Norwegian Nobel Committee speculates that Norway may have been better suited to awarding the prize as it did not have the same militaristic traditions as Sweden and so that is thought to be the reason why this is the only prize to be awarded in Oslo each year.
89 Peace Prizes have been awarded to 119 Nobel Laureates between 1901 and 2008. The prize is awarded in the Town Hall. The building shown above is of the Peace Prize museum – it’s a lot better looking than the Oslo Town Hall.
Winners of the peace prize include a few famous faces – some more controversial than others! The full list is below including the latest winner – Barack Obama!
- 2009 – Barack Obama
- 2008 – Martti Ahtisaari
- 2007 – Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Al Gore
- 2006 – Muhammad Yunus, Grameen Bank
- 2005 – International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei
- 2004 – Wangari Maathai
- 2003 – Shirin Ebadi
- 2002 – Jimmy Carter
- 2001 – United Nations, class=”mceItemHidden”> Kofi Annan
- 2000 – Kim Dae-jung
- 1999 – Médecins Sans Frontières
- 1998 – John Hume, David Trimble
- 1997 – International Campaign to Ban Landmines, Jody Williams
- 1996 – Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, José Ramos-Horta
- 1995 – Joseph Rotblat, Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs
- 1994 – Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin
- 1993 – Nelson Mandela, F.W. de Klerk
- 1992 – Rigoberta Menchú Tum
- 1991 – Aung San Suu Kyi
- 1990 – Mikhail Gorbachev
- 1989 – The 14th Dalai Lama
- 1988 – United Nations Peacekeeping Forces
- 1987 – Oscar Arias Sánchez
- 1986 – Elie Wiesel
- 1985 – International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War
- 1984 – Desmond Tutu
- 1983 – Lech Walesa
- 1982 – Alva Myrdal, Alfonso García Robles
- 1981 – Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
- 1980 – Adolfo Pérez Esquivel
- 1979 – Mother Teresa
- 1978 – Anwar al-Sadat, Menachem Begin
- 1977 – Amnesty International
- 1976 – Betty Williams, Mairead Corrigan
- 1975 – Andrei Sakharov
- 1974 – Seán MacBride, Eisaku Sato
- 1973 – Henry Kissinger, Le Duc Tho
- 1972 – The prize money for 1972 was allocated to the Main Fund
- 1971 – Willy Brandt
- 1970 – Norman Borlaug
- 1969 – International Labour Organization
- 1968 – René Cassin
- 1967 – The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
- 1966 – The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section
- 1965 – United Nations Children’s Fund
- 1964 – Martin Luther King Jr.
- 1963 – International Committee of the Red Cross, League of Red Cross Societies
- 1962 – Linus Pauling
- 1961 – Dag Hammarskjöld
- 1960 – Albert Lutuli
- 1959 – Philip Noel-Baker
- 1958 – Georges Pire
- 1957 – Lester Bowles Pearson
- 1956 – The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
- 1955 – The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section
- 1954 – Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
- 1953 – George C. Marshall
- 1952 – Albert Schweitzer
- 1951 – Léon Jouhaux
- 1950 – Ralph Bunche
- 1949 – Lord Boyd Orr
- 1948 – The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
- 1947 – Friends Service Council, American Friends Service Committee
- 1946 – Emily Greene Balch, John R. Mott
- 1945 – Cordell Hull
- 1944 – International Committee of the Red Cross
- 1943 – The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
- 1942 – The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
- 1941 – The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
- 1940 – The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
- 1939 – The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
- 1938 – Nansen International Office for Refugees
- 1937 – Robert Cecil
- 1936 – Carlos Saavedra Lamas
- 1935 – Carl von Ossietzky
- 1934 – Arthur Henderson
- 1933 – Sir Norman Angell
- 1932 – The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section
- 1931 – Jane Addams, Nicholas Murray Butler
- 1930 – Nathan Söderblom
- 1929 – Frank B. Kellogg
- 1928 – The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section
- 1927 – Ferdinand Buisson, Ludwig Quidde
- 1926 – Aristide Briand, Gustav Stresemann
- 1925 – Sir Austen Chamberlain, Charles G. Dawes
- 1924 – The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section
- 1923 – The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section
- 1922 – Fridtjof Nansen
- 1921 – Hjalmar Branting, Christian Lange
- 1920 – Léon Bourgeois
- 1919 – Woodrow Wilson
- 1918 – The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section
- 1917 – International Committee of the Red Cross
- 1916 – The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section
- 1915 – The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section
- 1914 – The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section
- 1913 – Henri La Fontaine
- 1912 – Elihu Root
- 1911 – Tobias Asser, Alfred Fried
- 1910 – Permanent International Peace Bureau
- 1909 – Auguste Beernaert, Paul Henri d’Estournelles de Constant
- 1908 – pre=””>Klas Pontus Arnoldson, Fredrik Bajer
- 1907 – Ernesto Teodoro Moneta, Louis Renault
- 1906 – Theodore Roosevelt
- 1905 – Bertha von Suttner
- 1904 – Institute of International Law
- 1903 – Randal Cremer
- 1902 – Élie Ducommun, Albert Gobat
- 1901 – Henry Dunant, Frédéric Passy
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