The Nobel Peace Prize

The Founder of the Prizes

·         In the 1890’s, Swedish, Alfred Nobel donated his large fortune to the Nobel Prizes.

·         He dedicated the award to “the Person who shall have done the most or the best work for the fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”

·         The United Nations and its secretary-General Kofi Annan were chosen, “...for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world...”

The First Peace Prize

·         Henry Dunant, founder of the Red Cross, shared the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901 with Frederic Passy, a leading international pacifist of the time.

·         In addition to humanisation efforts and peace movements, the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded for work in a wide range of fields including advocacy of human rights, mediation of international conflicts, and arms control.

Number of Prizes

·         The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to 120 Laureates -97 times to individuals and 23 times to organizations.

The Gender allocation

·         Of the 97 individuals awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, 12 are women.

·         Organizations can win the award also. Two examples are:

·           Red Cross

·         Amnesty International.  

More information can be found at http://nobelprize.org