The Nobel Peace Prize, awarded by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, is awarded in honour of Alfred Nobel who died on 10 December 1896. According to the term of his last will and testament dated 27 November 1895, “…one part [one fifth of the annual returns on the assets of the Foundation] [shall be apportioned] 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. He also stated that, “in awarding the prizes, no consideration whatever shall be given to the nationality of the candidates, but that the most worthy shall receive the prize, whether he be a Scandinavian or not”.
When you read the biographies and stories of these Nobel laureates, you will notice that there are no restrictions or criteria to ways through which one can act as a champion for peace. There is no restriction based on race, age, geographical location, sex, religion, educational qualifications, or even socio-economic status. The only thing these winners have in common is their commitment towards taking action geared towards promoting peace, security, and development. Between 1901 and 2020, the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded 101 times to 135 Nobel Laureates (107 individuals and 28 organisations), with each recipient receiving a diploma, a medal, and a monetary prize award that has varied throughout the year.
The winners of the Nobel Peace Prize include:
1901: Jean Henry Dunant “for his humanitarian efforts to help wounded soldiers and create international understanding” and Frédéric Passy “for his lifelong work for international peace conferences, diplomacy and arbitration”.
1902: Élie Ducommun “for his untiring and skilful directorship of the Bern Peace Bureau” and Charles Albert Gobat “for his eminently practical administration of the Inter-Parliamentary Union”.
1903: William Randal Cremer “for his longstanding and devoted effort in favour of the ideas of peace and arbitration”.
1904: Institut de droit international (Institute of International Law) “for its striving in public law to develop peaceful ties between nations and to make the laws of war more humane”.
1905: Baroness Bertha Sophie Felicita von Suttner, née Countess Kinsky von Chinic und Tettau “for her audacity to oppose the horrors of war through her book ‘Lay Down Your Arms’”.
1906: Theodore Roosevelt “for his role in bringing to an end the bloody war waged between two of the world’s great powers, Japan and Russia, and for his interest in arbitration having provided The Hague arbitration court with its very first case”.
1907: Ernesto Teodoro Moneta “for his work in the press and in peace meetings, both public and private, for an understanding between France and Italy” and Louis Renault “for his decisive influence upon the conduct and outcome of The Hague and Geneva Conferences”,
1908: Klas Pontus Arnoldson “for his work as founder of the Swedish Peace and Arbitration League” and Fredrik Bajer “for being the foremost peace advocate in Scandinavia, combining work in the Inter-Parliamentary Union with being the first president of International Peace Bureau”.
1909: Auguste Marie François Beernaert and Paul Henri Benjamin Balluet d’Estournelles de Constant, Baron de Constant de Rebecque “for their prominent position in the international movement for peace and arbitration”.
1910: Bureau international permanent de la Paix (Permanent International Peace Bureau) “for acting as a link between the peace societies of the various countries, and helping them to organize the world rallies of the international peace movement”.
1911: Tobias Michael Carel Asser “for his role as co-founder of the Institut de droit international, initiator of the Conferences on International Private Law (Conférences de Droit international privé) at The Hague, and pioneer in the field of international legal relations” and Alfred Hermann Fried “for his effort to expose and fight what he considers to be the main cause of war, namely, the anarchy in international relations”.
1912: Elihu Root “for bringing about better understanding between the countries of North and South America and initiating important arbitration agreements between the United States and other countries”.
1913: Henri La Fontaine “for his unparalleled contribution to the organization of peaceful internationalism”.
1914-1916: No Nobel Prize was awarded this year due to the First World War (The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section).
1917: Comité international de la Croix Rouge (International Committee of the Red Cross) “for the efforts to take care of wounded soldiers and prisoners of war and their families”.
1918: No Nobel Prize was awarded this year due to the First World War (The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section).
1919: Thomas Woodrow Wilson “for his role as founder of the League of Nations”.
1920: Léon Victor Auguste Bourgeois “for his longstanding contribution to the cause of peace and justice and his prominent role in the establishment of the League of Nations”.
1921: Karl Hjalmar Branting and Christian Lous Lange “for their lifelong contributions to the cause of peace and organized internationalism”.
1922: Fridtjof Nansen “for his leading role in the repatriation of prisoners of war, in international relief work and as the League of Nations’ High Commissioner for refugees”.
1923-1923: No Nobel Prize was awarded this year (The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section).
1925: Sir Austen Chamberlain “for his crucial role in bringing about the Locarno Treaty” and Charles Gates Dawes “for his crucial role in bringing about the Dawes Plan”.
1926: Aristide Briand and Gustav Stresemann “for their crucial role in bringing about the Locarno Treaty”.
1927: Ferdinand Buisson and Ludwig Quidde “for their contribution to the emergence in France and Germany of a public opinion which favours peaceful international cooperation”.
1928: No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section.
1929: Frank Billings Kellogg “for his crucial role in bringing about the Briand-Kellogg Pact”.
1930: Lars Olof Jonathan (Nathan) Söderblom “for promoting Christian unity and helping create ‘that new attitude of mind which is necessary if peace between nations is to become reality’”.
1931: Jane Addams “for her social reform work and leading the Women’s International league for Peace and Freedom” and Nicholas Murray Butler “for his promotion of the Briand-Kellogg pact and for his work as the leader of the more establishment-oriented part of the American peace movement”.
1932: No Nobel Prize was awarded this year (The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section).
1933: Sir Norman Angell (Ralph Lane) “for having exposed by his pen the illusion of war through his book (The Great Illusion) and presented a convincing plea for international cooperation and peace”.
1934: Arthur Henderson “for his untiring struggle and his courageous efforts as Chairman of the League of Nations Disarmament Conference 1931-1934”.
1935: Carl von Ossietzky “for his burning love for freedom of thought and expression and his valuable contribution to the cause of peace, especially through his struggle against Germany’s rearmament”.
1936: Carlos Saavedra Lamas “for his role as father of the Argentine Antiwar Pact of 1933, which he also used as a means to mediate peace between Paraguay and Bolivia in 1935”.
1937: Cecil of Chelwood, Viscount (Lord Edgar Algernon Robert Gascoyne Cecil) “for his tireless effort in support of the League of Nations, disarmament and peace”.
1938: Office international Nansen pour les Réfugiés (Nansen International Office for Refugees) “for having carried on the work of Fridtjof Nansen to the benefit of refugees across Europe”.
1939-1943: No Nobel Prize was awarded this year due to the Second World War (The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section).
1944: Comité international de la Croix Rouge (International Committee of the Red Cross) “for the great work it has performed during the war on behalf of humanity”.
1945: Cordell Hull “for his indefatigable work for international understanding and his pivotal role in establishing the United Nations”.
1946: Emily Greene Balch “for her lifelong work for the cause of peace in the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom” and John Raleigh Mott “for his contribution to the creation of a peace-promoting religious brotherhood across national boundaries through strengthening international Protestant Christian student organisations that worked to promote peace”.
1947: Friends Service Council (The Quakers) and American Friends Service Committee (The Quakers) “for their pioneering work in the international peace movement and compassionate effort to relieve human suffering, thereby promoting the fraternity between nations, especially by assisting and rescuing victims of the Nazis”.
1948: No Nobel Prize was awarded this year because there was no suitable living candidate, which was also a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi who was assassinated that year in India (The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section).
1949: Lord (John) Boyd Orr of Brechin “for his lifelong effort to conquer hunger and want, thereby helping to remove a major cause of military conflict and war and his work as the First Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation”.
1950: Ralph Bunche “for his work as mediator in Palestine in 1948-1949”.
1951: Léon Jouhaux “for his work on Franco-German reconciliation and for having devoted his life to the fight against war through the promotion of social justice and brotherhood among men and nations”.
1952: Albert Schweitzer “for his altruism, reverence for life, and tireless humanitarian work which has helped making the idea of brotherhood between men and nations a living one”.
1953: George Catlett Marshall “for proposing and supervising the plan for the economic recovery of post-war Europe”.
1954: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) “for its efforts to heal the wounds of war by providing help and protection to refugees all over the world”.
1955: No Nobel Prize was awarded this year (The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section).
1956: No Nobel Prize was awarded this year (The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section).
1957: Lester Bowles Pearson “for his crucial contribution to ending the Suez Conflict and trying to solve the Middle East Question through the deployment of a United Nations Emergency Force in the wake of the Suez Crisis”.
1958: Georges Pire “for his efforts to help refugees to leave their camps and return to a life of freedom and dignity”.
1959: Philip J. Noel-Baker “for his longstanding contribution to the cause of disarmament and peace”.
1960: Albert John Lutuli “for his non-violent struggle against apartheid”.
1961: Dag 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”.
1962: Linus Carl Pauling “for his fight against the nuclear arms race between East and West”.
1963: Comité international de la Croix Rouge (International Committee of the Red Cross) and Ligue des Sociétés de la Croix-Rouge (League of Red Cross Societies) “for promoting the principles of the Geneva Convention and cooperation with the UN”.
1964: Martin Luther King Jr. “for his non-violent struggle for civil rights for the Afro-American population”.
1965: United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) “for its effort to enhance solidarity between nations and reduce the difference between rich and poor states”.
1966: No Nobel Prize was awarded this year (The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section).
1967: No Nobel Prize was awarded this year (The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section).
1968: René Cassin “for his struggle to ensure the rights of man as stipulated in the UN Declaration”.
1969: International Labour Organization (I.L.O.) “for creating international legislation insuring certain norms for working conditions in every country”.
1970: Norman E. Borlaug “for having given a well-founded hope– the green revolution”.
1971: Willy Brandt “for paving the way for a meaningful dialogue between East and West”.
1972: No Nobel Prize was awarded this year (The prize money was allocated to the Main Fund).
1973: Henry A. Kissinger and Le Duc Tho “for jointly having negotiated a cease fire in Vietnam in 1973”.
1974: Seán MacBride “for his efforts to secure and develop human rights throughout the world” and Eisaku Sato “for his contribution to stabilize conditions in the Pacific rim area and for signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty”.
1975: Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov “for his struggle for human rights in the Soviet Union, for disarmament and cooperation between all nations”.
1976: Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan “for the courageous efforts in founding a movement to put an end to the violent conflict in Northern Ireland”.
1977: Amnesty International “for worldwide respect for human rights”.
1978: Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat and Menachem Begin “for jointly having negotiated peace between Egypt and Israel in 1978”.
1979: Mother Teresa “for her work for bringing help to suffering humanity”.
1980: Adolfo Pérez Esquivel “for being a source of inspiration to repressed people, especially in Latin America”.
1981: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) “for promoting the fundamental rights of refugees”.
1982: Alva Myrdal and Alfonso García Robles “for their work for disarmament and nuclear and weapon-free zones”.
1983: Lech Walesa “for non-violent struggle for free trade unions and human rights in Poland”.
1984: Desmond Mpilo Tutu “for his role as a unifying leader figure in the non-violent campaign to resolve the problem of apartheid in South Africa”.
1985: International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War “for spreading authoritative information and by creating awareness of the catastrophic consequences of nuclear war”.
1986: Elie Wiesel “for being a messenger to mankind: his message is one of peace, atonement and dignity”.
1987: Oscar Arias Sánchez “for his work for lasting peace in Central America”.
1988: United Nations Peacekeeping Forces “for preventing armed clashes and creating conditions for negotiations”.
1989: The 14th Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso) “for advocating peaceful solutions based upon tolerance and mutual respect in order to preserve the historical and cultural heritage of his people”.
1990: Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev “for the leading role he played in the radical changes in East-West relations”.
1991: Aung San Suu Kyi “for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights”.
1992: Rigoberta Menchú Tum “for her struggle for social justice and ethno-cultural reconciliation based on respect for the rights of indigenous peoples”.
1993: Nelson Mandela and Frederik Willem de Klerk “for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa”.
1994: Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin “for their efforts to create peace in the Middle East”.
1995: Joseph Rotblat and 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”.
1996: Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo and José Ramos-Horta “for their work towards a just and peaceful solution to the conflict in East Timor”.
1997: International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) and Jody Williams “for their work for the banning and clearing of anti-personnel mines”.
1998: John Hume and David Trimble “for their efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict in Northern Ireland”.
1999: Médecins Sans Frontières “in recognition of the organization’s pioneering humanitarian work on several continents”.
2000: Kim Dae-jung “for his work for democracy and human rights in South Korea and in East Asia in general, and for peace and reconciliation with North Korea in particular”.
2001: United Nations (U.N.) and Kofi Annan “for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world”.
2002: Jimmy Carter “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development”.
2003: Shirin Ebadi “for her efforts for democracy and human rights. She has focused especially on the struggle for the rights of women and children”.
2004: Wangari Muta Maathai “for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace”.
2005: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Mohamed ElBaradei “for their 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”.
2006: Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank “for their efforts to create economic and social development from below”.
2007: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Albert Arnold (Al) Gore Jr. “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change”.
2007: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Albert Arnold (Al) Gore Jr. “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change”.
2008: Martti Ahtisaari “for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts”.
2009: Barack H. Obama “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”.
2010: Liu Xiaobo “for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China”.
2011: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkol Karman “for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work”.
2012: European Union (EU) “for over six decades contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe”.
2013: Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) “for its extensive efforts to eliminate chemical weapons”.
2014: Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai “for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education”.
2015: National Dialogue Quartet “for its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011”.
2016: Juan Manuel Santos “for his resolute efforts to bring the country’s more than 50-year-long civil war to an end”.
2017: International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) “for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons”.
2018: Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad “for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict”.
2019: Abiy Ahmed Ali “for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighbouring Eritrea”.
2020: World Food Programme (WFP) “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”.
References
All Nobel Peace Prizes. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2021. Thu. 22 Jul 2021. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/lists/all-nobel-peace-prizes
https://www.nobelpeaceprize.org/Prize-winners/Women-laureates
Nobel, P. 2001. Alfred Bernhard Nobel and the Peace Prize. RICR Juin IRRC, 83(842).
Nice compilation. I love it!