We are rapidly approaching the date, October 10, 2025, when the Norwegian Nobel Committee, a five-member body appointed by Norway’s Parliament (Storting) will announce the recipient of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, one of the world’s most prominent and prestigious honors.
There is heightened interest this year because of the intense lobbying to have the Prize awarded to Donald Trump. Pressure that includes multiple nominations and shout-outs from U.S. political allies and organizations, including from foreign leaders.
Trump himself has not been shy about promoting his qualifications for the Prize, which Zeeshan Aleem calls “yet another stroke of Orwellian audacity…”
Efforts that have not gone unnoticed by the Nobel Committee which has found it necessary to state that it will not be swayed by public pressure.
According to the Times of Israel, the Secretary of the Committee, Kristian Berg Harpviken, had this to say, “Of course, we do notice that there is a lot of media attention towards particular candidates…But that really has no impact on the discussions that are going on in the committee.”
I found the history, background and facts surrounding the Nobel Peace Prize fascinating and would like to share such with our readers.
The Nobel Prize for Peace is awarded, according to the will of Swedish inventor and industrialist Alfred Bernhard Nobel, to the person “who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”
First presented in 1901, the Peace Prize has been awarded in recognition of “many different kinds of peace work and concepts of peace.”
Since World War II, “the Peace Prize has principally been awarded to honor efforts in four main areas: arms control and disarmament, peace negotiation, democracy and human rights, and work aimed at creating a better organized and more peaceful world.”
More recently, “the Nobel Committee has embraced efforts to limit the harm done by man-made climate change and threats to the environment as relevant to the Peace Prize.”
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of five original Nobel Prizes. The other four are: the Nobel Prize in Physics, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and the Nobel Prize in Literature.
The Prizes were specified in Nobel’s last will and testament in 1895, a year before his death, directing that the bulk of his fortune, believed to be around 31 million Swedish kronor (SEK) at the time — today approximately SEK2.2 billion, or $236 million — be used for those Prizes.
A sixth Prize was created in 1968. It was named “the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.” It was established to celebrate the bank’s 300th anniversary and in memory of Alfred Nobel.
While the Nobel Prizes are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo, Norway according to the wishes of Alfred Nobel.
Alfred Nobel was a Swedish “inventor, entrepreneur, scientist and businessman who also wrote poetry and drama.” He invented and manufactured dynamite and several other explosives, though he was “essentially a pacifist and hoped the destructive powers of his inventions would help bring an end to war…”
The first Nobel Peace Prize was jointly and equally awarded in 1901 to Jean Henry Dunant “for his humanitarian efforts to help wounded soldiers and create international understanding” and to Frédéric Passy “for his lifelong work for international peace conferences, diplomacy and arbitration.”
Since then, the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded 105 times to 142 Nobel Prize laureates: 111 individuals and 31 organizations:
• 71 Peace Prizes were awarded to a single laureate.
• 31 Peace Prizes were shared by two laureates.
• 3 Peace Prizes were shared by three laureates.
One of those shared Prizes was the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize awarded jointly to Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin “for their efforts to create peace in the Middle East.”
Of the 142 laureates, 92 were men, 19 women and 28 organizations.
Among the 29 women laureates:
• Bertha von Suttner (1905 – Austria). The first woman to be awarded the Peace Prize, “for her audacity to oppose the horrors of war.”
• Mother Teresa (1979 – India) “for her work for bringing help to suffering humanity.”
• Aung San Suu Kyi (1991 – Burma) “for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights.”
• Jody Williams (1997 – USA) along with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines “for their work for the banning and clearing of anti-personnel mines.”
• Shirin Ebadi (2003 – Iran). The First Female Peace Prize Laureate from the Islamic World. “for her efforts for democracy and human rights…”
Of the 28 organizations, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), has been awarded the Peace Prize three times, and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize two times.
While there are individuals who have received a Nobel Prize twice in other fields, no individual has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize more than once.
The first organization to receive the Nobel Peace prize was the Institute of International Law in 1904 “for its striving in public law to develop peaceful ties between nations and to make the laws of war more humane.”
Some of the other organizations:
• 1965: United Nations Children’s Fund “for its effort to enhance solidarity between nations and reduce the difference between rich and poor states”
• 1977: Amnesty International “for worldwide respect for human rights”
• 1981: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees “for promoting the fundamental rights of refugees.”
• 1999: Doctors Without Borders “in recognition of the organization’s pioneering humanitarian work on several continents”
• 2020: World Food Program “for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict.”
U.S. Presidents who have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize:
• Theodore Roosevelt, 1906, “for his role in bringing to an end the bloody war recently waged between two of the world’s great powers, Japan and Russia.”
• Woodrow Wilson, 1920, “for his efforts in ending the First World War and help in creating the League of Nations.”
• Jimmy Carter, 2002, “for his efforts in finding “peaceful solutions to international conflicts, advancing democracy and human rights, and promoting economic and social development.”
• Barack Obama, 2009, “for his efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation.”
Vice President Al Gore was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 “for his efforts to obtain and spread knowledge about climate change.”
Other notable Nobel Peace Prize laureates:
1952, Albert Schweitzer; 1964, Martin Luther King Jr.; 1978, Anwar al-Sadat and Menachem Begin; 1983. Lech Walesa; 1984, Desmond Tutu; 1986, Elie Wiesel; 1989, the 14th Dalai Lama; 1990 Mikhail Gorbachev; 1993, Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk.
The 2023 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Iranian human rights advocate Narges Mohammad “for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all.”
When her selection as the Nobel Peace Prize laureate was announced, “she was locked in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison.” Her condition and situation in Iran remain precarious, to say the least. As recently as July 2025, the Norwegian Nobel Committee expressed “its concern over ongoing threats against Narges Mohammadi.”
The age of a person is not an obstacle to well-deserved recognition.
The youngest Nobel Peace Prize recipient is Malala Yousafzai from the United Kingdom. She was 17 when she shared the 2014 Peace Prize with Kailash Satyarthi (India) “for the right of every child to receive an education…for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education.”
The oldest Nobel Peace Prize recipient is Joseph Rotblat (Polish-British) who, at age 86, shared the 1995 Peace Prize with Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs “for their efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international politics and, in the longer run, to eliminate such arms.”
Additional interesting facts about the Nobel Peace Prize:
While presently (and after 1974), a Nobel Prize “cannot be awarded posthumously, unless death has occurred after the announcement of the Nobel Prize,” the 1961 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded posthumously to Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld “for developing the UN into an effective and constructive international organization, capable of giving life to the principles and aims expressed in the UN Charter.”
The Nobel Peace Prize was not awarded on 19 occasions, such as in years during World Wars I and II. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, “Prizes may be withheld or not awarded in years when no worthy recipient can be found or when the world situation (e.g., World Wars I and II) prevents the gathering of information needed to reach a decision.”
The Vietnamese politician Le Duc Tho, who was awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, is the only person who has declined the Nobel Peace Prize. “Le Duc Tho said that he was not in a position to accept the Nobel Prize, citing the situation in Vietnam as his reason.”
The statutes of the Nobel Foundation restrict disclosure of information about the nominations, whether publicly or privately, for 50 years.
A Nobel (Peace) Prize cannot be revoked once awarded. However, the Nobel Organization adds, “criticism of Nobel Peace Prize laureates after they have been awarded is something the Committee tries to follow closely, sometimes with great concern.”
Jane Addams (USA) was nominated 91 times between 1916 and 1931, before she was awarded the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize.
There are several nominees for the Peace Prize who – unsurprisingly – were not awarded the high honor. Among them, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, and Benito Mussolini.
On the other hand, although nominated, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Winston Churchill were not awarded the Peace Prize. Churchill did receive the 1953 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Deadline for 2025 Nobel Peace Prize nominations was midnight CET January 31, 2025.
According to the Norwegian Nobel Institute, 338 candidates were nominated, “of which 244 are individuals and 94 are organizations…a significant increase from last year when there were 286 nominees.”
Various news sources have published names of nominees. Among them, Donald Trump, Pope Francis, Elon Musk, Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman, and Yulia Navalnaya, the wife of deceased Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
“At the beginning of October, the Nobel Committee chooses the Nobel Peace Prize laureates through a majority vote. The decision is final and without appeal. The names of the Nobel Peace Prize laureates are then announced.” This year’s announcement is expected to be on October 10.
On December 10, the day of Alfred Nobel’s death, the 2025, Nobel Peace Prize laureates will receive their prize at the Oslo, Norway, City Hall. The Nobel Prize consists of a Nobel Prize medal and diploma, and a document confirming the prize amount, which is expected to be SEK11 million, or approximately $1 million.
We know that the Norwegian Peace Price Committee will deliberate and decide in the same independent and impartial manner they have been doing now for over a century.
Sources and quotes, unless otherwise noted, from web sites of the Norwegian Nobel Institute
