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A week of world-wide recognition for achievements in Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Economics, and most notably, Peace, will begin in Oslo and Stockholm on Monday.
Dr. Geir Lundestad, Director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, was at the Smithsonian on Tuesday September 27th to shed some light on these awards and discuss why, out of all the awards given everyday for all sorts of reasons, the Nobel Peace Prize is the most prestigious award in the world.
The Nobel Prize Legacy began 104 years ago with the passing of Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite and quite a wealthy man at the time of his death. In his will he stated, "The whole of my remaining realizable estate… shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind.”
From its very beginning, the Nobel Peace Prize was a different breed of award, even standing out from the other Nobel prizes. For instance, the other prizes are awarded in Sweden by various institutes, while the Peace Prize is awarded by a five unknown and unassuming Norwegians elected by the Norwegian parliament, a parliament that is relatively quiet in the international political arena, and yet these five unknowns have one of the loudest and most respected voices out of anyone in the world.
Dr. Lundestad of the Nobel Institute said, “There are two great mysteries with the Nobel Prize. One, is that people around the world actually care about who wins, and two, the award is really able to influence events, even in East Timor which is about as far away from Norway as you can get.”
In 1996, The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to two Timorese activists campaigning peacefully for independence from a brutal Indonesian occupation. They traveled the globe trying to find someone to listen to them, even finding themselves in strange countries without money, food, or a place to sleep. After recognition from the Nobel Institute however, the ears of the world perked up. The activists then were able to meet with presidents, prime ministers, and UN officials, finally getting their small corner of the world the attention it deserved. The Timorese still greatly attribute their successful campaign for independence to the Nobel Peace Prize.
This ability to influence and impact world events is the most intriguing attribute of the Nobel Peace Prize. Because the Peace Prize is not given in recognition of some great accomplishment, but rather to humanitarians in the midst of their hardest work, it serves as encouragement and tangible support while they endeavor against insurmountable odds.
Nobel Peace Prize Laureates are a diverse group. A Kenyan woman named Wangari Muta Maathai won last year’s award for efforts toward democracy and sustainable development in Africa. The United Nations and its secretary general won in 2001. Doctors Without Borders won in 1999. The Dalai Lama has won, as has The Campaign to Ban Landmines, Mother Teresa, Desmond Tutu, Amnesty International, and many others whose names you may or may not recognize, but all of whose causes you could identify with.
Yet Dr. Lundestad humbly admitted that the Nobel Peace Prize Committee sometimes misses the mark.
“We have made mistakes, serious mistakes,” he said.
He did not mention specifics names of Laureates he disagreed with, although many people have a puzzled face upon learning that Henry Kissinger was given the award in 1973.
Dr. Lundestad did admit that “Mahatma Gandhi never received the award when he definitely should have.” The regret of this almost fifty-year-old mistake still showed on his face even though he would have been just a boy at the time.
No matter what their decision is next week, let us all just hope that they continue to stand on their principles and use their wisdom. “
We do not claim a perfect record in decisions,” said Dr. Lundestad, “but we do have a perfect record of efforts and continued respect.” This commitment to positive efforts is what has earned the Nobel Prizes such well-deserved prominence, and it is what will ensure that the Nobel legacy continues to inspire future generations and actually contribute to the building of a better, safer, wiser world for those generations to live in.
Winners of Nobel Peace Prize since 1980
2004 - Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai
2003 - Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi
2002 - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter
2001 - The United Nations and Secretary-General Kofi Annan
2000 - South Korean President Kim Dae-jung
1999 - Medical aid charity Medecins Sans Frontieres
1998 - Northern Ireland politicians John Hume and David Trimble
1997 - The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) and campaign coordinator Jody Williams
1996 - Roman Catholic Bishop Carlos Belo and Jose Ramos Horta, campaigners for human rights in East Timor
1995 - Veteran anti-nuclear campaigner Joseph Rotblat and his Pugwash organisation
1994 - Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat
1993 - African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela and South African President F.W. de Klerk
1992 - Rigoberta Menchu, Guatemalan campaigner for Indian human rights
1991 - Detained Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi
1990 - Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
1989 - The Dalai Lama, exiled spiritual and political leader of Tibet
1988 - U.N. Peacekeeping Forces
1987 - Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, author of a peace plan for Central America
1986 - Elie Wiesel, Jewish author and human rights campaigner
1985 - International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, led by Yevgeny Chazov of the Soviet Union and Bernard Lown of the United States
1984 - Desmond Tutu, head of Anglican Church in South Africa and anti-apartheid campaigner
1983 - Lech Walesa, leader of Poland's Solidarity union
1982 - Shared by Sweden's Minister for Disarmament Alva Myrdal and Mexican diplomat and former foreign minister Alfonso Garcia Robles
1981 - Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees
1980 - Argentine human rights campaigner Adolfo Perez Esquivel
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