OSLO, Oct 11 (Askume) – The winner of the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize will be announced in Oslo on Friday . Here’s how the award is presented:
Who will win?
According to the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, the prize would be awarded to “the person who has done the most to promote brotherhood among nations, to abolish or reduce standing armies, and to establish and promote congresses of peace.”
Thousands of people can nominate: members of government and parliament; current heads of state; university professors of history, social sciences, law and philosophy, and former Nobel Peace Prize laureates;
There are 286 nominees this year, but the full list will be preserved for 50 years.
Oddsmakers’ favourite this year is the late Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, who died in custody in February . But that may not be possible as he cannot receive the prize posthumously.
Another favourite among bookmakers is Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, but he too is unlikely to win because he is a wartime leader.
Who makes the decision?
The Norwegian Nobel Committee consists of five individuals appointed by the Norwegian Parliament to serve as arbitrators. Members are usually, but not always, retired politicians. The current committee is led by the head of the Norwegian branch of PEN International, which defends freedom of expression.
All of these appointments were made by Norwegian political parties, and their appointments reflect the balance of power in the Norwegian Parliament.
How do they make decisions?
Nominations close on January 31. Committee members can make their nominations before the first meeting of the committee in February.
They discuss all the nominations and then prepare a shortlist. Each nominee is then evaluated and reviewed by a team of permanent advisors and other experts.
The committee meets approximately once a month to discuss nominations. They usually make a decision at a final committee meeting in early October.
The committee hopes that there will be a consensus on its choice. If this is not possible, the decision is taken by majority.
The last time a member resigned in protest was in 1994, when Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat shared the prize with Israel’s Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin.
Who has been nominated?
Although the full list of nominations is confidential, nominators are free to disclose it.
Names announced this year include the United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR, Pope Francis and British naturalist David Attenborough.
Experts tracking the awards said this year’s prizes focused particularly on the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees, the International Court of Justice and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
What do the winners get?
A medal, a certificate, 11 million Swedish krona ($1.1 million) and instant global attention.
South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the 1984 Nobel laureate, said that being a Nobel laureate is a double-edged sword. In his authorized biography, he is quoted as saying: “One day no one was listening. The next day, I was an oracle.”
When will the announcement and ceremony take place?
The announcement will be made on Friday 11 October at 1100 CET (0900 GMT) by Jørgen Vatne Fridnes, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo.
The ceremony will be held at the Oslo City Hall on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death.
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