There are 305 nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize

COPENHAGEN (AP) — The Nobel Prize committee said Wednesday it had received 305 nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize before the Feb. 1 deadline, the lowest number in four years. The names of 212 individuals and 93 organizations were not disclosed per the committee’s guidelines.

There was a decrease from 343 applicants last year, the Oslo-based organization said, the lowest number of applications since 2019. Over the past eight years, the number of applicants has exceeded 300 each year and the record high was in 2016 with 376.

“Who nominates and who is nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize will remain a secret for 50 years,” the Oslo-based committee, which is notoriously secretive, said in a statement.

A large number of people can apply: heads of state or politicians of national positions, university professors, directors of foreign policy institutes, laureates of previous years and members of committees.

However, those submitting a candidacy can choose to make it public, resulting in publicity for both the nominee and the nominee. Norwegian lawmaker Lan Mari Nguyen Bergh of the Greens has nominated two climate activists, Sweden’s Greta Thunberg and Uganda’s Vanessa Nakate, for “massive mobilization” on their continent.

Thunberg has been nominated four times, including last year when human rights activists in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia took home the award, in a sharp rebuke to Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose invasion of Ukraine ended decades of enduring peace in Europe. , who rules in an authoritarian manner and has emerged as an ally of Putin.

On February 1, the director of the Institute for Peace Research in Oslo, Henrik Urdal, announced that he had nominated two activists for the 2023 prize, including Narges Mohammadi, an Iranian human rights activist, and human rights activist Mahboubeh Sarraj. women in Afghanistan; Myanmar representative to the UN Kyaw Mo Tun and the International Court of Justice, among others.

Ardal noted that 2023 marks the 75th anniversary of the International Declaration of Human Rights, and that his list “reflects a valuable and timely focus on human rights defenders and activists.”

The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo, the capital of Norway, while other prizes are awarded in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, in compliance with the wishes of honor founder Alfred Nobel.