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Pope Francis, British naturalist David Attenborough, World Health Organization and Belarusian dissident Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya are among the candidates for this year Nobel Peace Prize after being sponsored by the Norwegian parliamentarians who have a path to choose the winner.
Nominations for the award also include last-minute announcements on Monday by Greta Thunberg, a member of the National Union of Myanmar’s National Union government and opponents of last year’s coup.
Thousands of people, from members of parliament around the world to former winners, have the right to nominate candidates.
Norwegian lawmakers have nominated a Peace Prize winner every year since 2014 -except 2019-, including one of the two winners last year, Maria Ressa.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which decides who wins the award, does not comment on the nominations, which have been kept secret for 50 years by the names of candidates and unsuccessful candidates.
But some candidates, like Norwegian MPs, choose to reveal their options.
Legislative elections
Attenborough, 95, is best known for his major TV series illustrating the natural world, including Life on Earth and The Blue Planet.
It was named in conjunction with the Intergovernmental Science and Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), which assesses the state of biodiversity for policy makers around the world.
“The effort to inform and protect the earth’s natural diversity is an essential condition for a sustainable and peaceful society,” said Norwegian Green Party leader Une Bastholm.
Another Green Party representative nominated Sweden’s Greta Thunberg, who has gone from being a teenage activist to a world leader in the climate, who has been nominated for a Nobel Prize in recent years, along with the Fridays For Future movement.
Pope Francis has appointed Dag Inge Ulstein, a former international development minister, to work to help resolve the climate crisis and work for peace and reconciliation.
Tuvalu Foreign Minister Simon Kofe has been nominated by Guri Melby, leader of the Norwegian Liberal Party, for his work in highlighting climate change issues.
Environmentalists have won the Nobel Peace Prize in the past, including Kenyan activist Wangari Maathai, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and former US Vice President Al Gore.
However, “there is no scientific consensus on climate change as a major driver of the violent struggle,” said Henrik Urdal, director of the Oslo Institute for Peace Research, noting that the link between the two is “too simplistic.”
The coronavirus pandemic has been a public concern for the past two years, and this year the international organization responsible for tackling it has been re-appointed.
“I think the WHO will be discussed in this year’s award committee,” Urdal said.
Following the arrest of Myanmar’s National Union government, Aung San Suu Kyi, a former civilian leader and peacekeeper, in a coup, opponents of the military government also nominated a shadow government last year.
Tsikhanouskaya Potsdamer Platz stands in front of the remains of the Berlin Wall, which were repainted by Belarusian activists. [File: Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters]Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya has been named exiled leader for two years in a row for her “courageous, tireless and peaceful work for democracy and freedom” in her hometown, Haarek Elvenes MP said.
Other candidates nominated by Norwegian lawmakers include Russian dissident Alexey Navalny, Hague International Criminal Court, WikiLeaks and Chelsea Manning, NATO, CARE aid organization, Iranian human rights activist Masih Alinejad and the Arctic Council, a forum for intergovernmental cooperation. Arctic nations, according to a Reuters poll of Norwegian lawmakers.
Nominations closed on Monday do not mean approval by the Nobel committee. The 2021 award will be announced in October.
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