A good number of nominations for the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize, whose presentation period ended this Tuesday and among which stand out the head of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, and the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelenski, are related to the war in Ukraine, although it does not mean that they are favourites, the international press reported.
Among the people and organizations suggested to the Norwegian Nobel committee, the few names that were made public generally refer to actors linked to the conflict in Ukraine or to opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The 2023 award will be announced in early October and every year hundreds of names are proposed; for example, in 2022 343 were proposed.
Although by statute the list of candidates is kept secret for at least 50 years, the thousands of sponsors – among them, legislators and ministers of all countries, former laureates, academics – are free to reveal the identity of their candidate.
An MP from the Norwegian populist right hinted that he will propose Zelensky, become a symbol of resistance to the Russian invasion that began on February 24, 2022.
The same parliamentarian also submitted the name of his compatriot Stoltenberg, who, according to him, “deserves the award for his exemplary work as NATO Secretary General in a difficult period for the alliance: the brutal and unprovoked offensive against a peaceful neighboring country”.
Too the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is on the list nominated by the president of the Pakistani Senate for his peace efforts “before and during the Russo-Ukrainian war,” according to the AFP news agency.
They also include opponents of the Putin regime, such as Alexey Navalny, and journalist Vladimir Kara-Mourza.
“Today we know that the basis of this war is a Russian regime built on corruption and oppression,” maintained the Norwegian deputy who proposed Kara-Mourza’s candidacy.
“He participates in the most important political fight to end the war in Ukraine and guarantee future peace in Europe,” he argued, quoted by the NTB agency.
Last year, the prize was awarded to the trio made up of the Russian NGO Memorial, whose dissolution was ordered by the Russian Justice, the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties and the Belarusian activist Ales Bialiatski, arrested.
In 2021, it was another Kremlin critic, journalist Dmitri Muratov, editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, who was awarded along with his Filipino colleague Maria Ressa, both recognized as heralds of threatened press freedom in both countries.
Among the people and organizations suggested to the Norwegian Nobel committee, the few names that were made public generally refer to actors linked to the conflict in Ukraine or to opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Henrik Urdal, director of the Oslo Peace Research Institute, considers it unlikely that the Nobel committee “award a third consecutive Russia-related award.”
“Last year it was difficult for the committee to look beyond Ukraine because of how important and pervasive the conflict was, but it is also essential to highlight other international issues in other parts of the world,” he added.
In recent years there has been speculation about the possibility of a Nobel Peace Prize for environmental defenders.
Norwegian environmental deputy Lan Marie Berg announced on Tuesday that presented the candidacy of two young climate activists, the Swedish Greta Thunberg, 20 years old and whose name has been circulating for the award for several years, and the Ugandan Vanessa Nakate, 27.