Nobel
Peace Prize



What is the Nobel Prize?


The Nobel Prize is the
brainchild of Alfred Nobel, a Swedish chemist who was best known in his
lifetime for his invention of dynamite. Upon his death in 1896, a reading of his will
revealed stipulations that over 90% of his estate should be used to establish
prizes in five categories: physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace.
Many wonder why Nobel established the Nobel Prize. It has often been assumed
that he sought to make restitution for creating dynamite.
Nobel did catch a glimpse of a French obituary for himself when his brother
died and a French newspaper thought Nobel had died. Among other colorful terms,
the newspapers called Alfred Nobel a “merchant of death.” Thus the restitution
to reward the positive aspects of the world remains the popular theory on the
establishment of the Nobel Prize.
Alfred Nobel died in 1896. The first Nobel Prize was awarded in 1901.
Nobel stipulated exactly how the prizes should be determined, and what bodies
should be responsible for selecting and awarding prizes.







According to Nobel’s
will, the Swedish
Academy of Science was to
award a yearly Nobel Prize in Physics and Chemistry. The Caroline Institute at Stockholm would award the
Nobel Prize for medicine. The Academy
of Stockholm would
determine the Nobel Prize for literature. Five members selected by the
Norwegian government select the recipient of the annual Peace Prize. The Peace
Prize is awarded in Oslo, Norway, while the other Nobel Prizes are awarded
in Stockholm, Sweden. Each award was to be given
without regard to nationality, and was meant to represent the best and brightest
contributors to each field.

Some confusion exists over a sixth category, the Nobel Prize in Economics. This
is not technically a Nobel Prize because it was not listed in Nobel’s will, and
it does use Nobel’s foundation to award funds. This award was established in
1969 and is awarded by the Swedish
Academy of Sciences.
Monies awarded come from the Bank of Sweden.
Typically the Nobel Prize means one wins a medal, international recognition,
and a sum of money for ongoing work in one’s field. Often the money is not
greatly important since people receiving the award tend to be at the end of
their careers. Currently, those receiving the Prize may receive a little over
one million US dollars (USD).
Since the Prize’s establishment, over 750 awards have been given. The Nobel
Prize tends not to be awarded posthumously, which has met with some
controversy. Some of the recipients of the award have also been criticized. For
example, Mahatma Gandhi never won the Nobel Peace Prize despite his sterling
efforts to promote non-violent protests and fair government in India .



















































What
is the Nobel Peace Prize?


The Nobel Peace Prize is
an award presented to either an individual or an organization in accordance
with Alfred Nobel’s living will. Alfred Nobel, creator of the five Nobel
Prizes, was a Swedish inventor and industrialist. He disposed the Nobel Peace
Prize in his will to be awarded to “the person who shall have done the most or
the best work for fraternity between the nations, for the abolition or reduction
of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses."
The Nobel Peace Prize differs from the Nobel Prizes in literature, physics,
chemistry, and medicine or physiology in that it may be presented not only to
individuals, but also to organizations that are actively engaged in a process
or effort that intends to promote world peace. The prize can be awarded for
current efforts, rather than for having accomplished a goal or resolved an
issue.

Having been awarded since 1901, the Nobel Peace Prize is considered a very
astute recognition, but some past nominees and recipients have created
controversy. Adolf Hitler was nominated in 1939, but the nomination was
retracted. Other nominees include Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini, and Yasser Arafat.
Arafat received the Nobel Peace Prize, as did Henry Kissinger and Mikhail
Gorbachev. Due to the practice of awarding the Nobel Peace Prize based on a
work in progress, it stands to reason that some recipients may seem like poor
choices in hindsight; however, many recipients have been life-long promoters of
peace and human rights, such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Mother Theresa, and the
Dalai Lama
An individual or organization may be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by any
qualifying individual, including former recipients, university professors,
international leaders, and members of national assemblies. The list of nominees
is kept private each year, and though a group or individual may later be
referred to as a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, this title bears no official merit.
Nominees and recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize between 1901 and 1951 are
currently compiled into a database. There are those who publicly criticize the
Nobel Peace Prize as being politically slanted to the left and failing to recognize
true merit, but even with past controversy, the Nobel Peace Prize continues to
be an astute recognition that few would decline to accept




















List of Nobel Peace
Prize Winners (1901-2009)





2009 Barack Obama
2008 Martti Ahtisaari
2007 Albert Arnold (Al) Gore Jr.
2006 Muhammad Yunus
2005 Mohamed Elbaradei + International
Atomic Energy Agency
2004 Wangari Maathai
2003 Shirin Ebadi
2002 Jimmy Carter
2001 United Nations, 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 No Award
1971 Willy Brandt
1970 Norman Borlaug
1969 International Labour Organization
1968 René Cassin
1967-66 No Award
1965 United Nations Children's Fund
1964 Martin Luther King
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 Prize money to Special Fund
1955 "
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 No Award
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
1939-1943 No Award
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 No Award
1931 Jane Addams, Nicholas Murray Butler
1930 Nathan Söderblom
1929 Frank B. Kellogg
1928 No Award
1927 Ferdinand Buisson, Ludwig Quidde
1926 Aristide Briand, Gustav Stresemann
1925 Sir Austen Chamberlain, Charles G.
Dawes
1924 -23 No Award
1922 Fridtjof Nansen
1921 Hjalmar Branting, Christian Lange
1920 Léon Bourgeois
1919 Woodrow Wilson
1918 No Award
1917 International Committee of the Red
Cross
1916-1913 No Award
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 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






















































































Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei

- The Nobel Peace Prize 2005 -







Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei is
the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), an intergovernmental
organization that is part of the United Nations system. He was appointed to the
office effective 1 December 1997, and reappointed to a third term in September
2005.
From 1984, Dr. ElBaradei was a senior staff member of the IAEA Secretariat,
holding a number of high-level policy positions, including Agency's Legal
Adviser and subsequently Assistant Director General for External Relations.
Dr. ElBaradei was born in Cairo,
Egypt, in 1942,
son of the late Mostafa ElBaradei, a lawyer and former President of the
Egyptian Bar Association. He gained a Bachelor's degree in Law in 1962 at the University of Cairo, and a Doctorate in International
Law at the New York University School of Law in 1974.
He began his career in the Egyptian Diplomatic Service in 1964, serving on two
occasions in the Permanent Missions of Egypt to the United Nations in New York and Geneva,
in charge of political, legal and arms control issues. From 1974 to 1978 he was
a special assistant to the Foreign Minister of Egypt. In 1980 he left the
Diplomatic Service to join the United Nations and became a senior fellow in
charge of the International Law Program at the United Nations Institute for
Training and Research. From 1981 to 1987 he was also an Adjunct Professor of
International Law at the New York University School of Law.
During his career as diplomat, international civil servant and scholar, Dr.
ElBaradei has become closely familiar with the work and processes of
international organizations, particularly in the fields of international peace
and security and international development. He has lectured widely in the
fields of international law, international organizations, arms control and the
peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and is the author of various articles and
books on these subjects. He belongs to a number of professional associations,
including the International Law Association and the American Society of
International Law.
In October 2005, Dr. ElBaradei and the IAEA were jointly awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize for efforts "to prevent nuclear energy from being used for
military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is
used in the safest possible way." In addition, he has received multiple
other awards for his work. These include the International Four Freedoms award
from the Roosevelt Institute, the James Park Morton Interfaith Award, and the
Golden Plate Award from the Academy
of Achievement. Dr.
ElBaradei is also the recipient of a number of honorary degrees and
decorations, including a Doctorate of Laws from New York University
and the Nile Collar – the highest Egyptian decoration.
Dr. ElBaradei is married to Aida Elkachef, an early childhood teacher. They
have a daughter, Laila, a lawyer in private practice, and a son, Mostafa, a
studio director with a television network, both of whom live and work in London, England.