The Nobel Peace Prize is an international award recognizing contributions to peace, established through the will of Swedish inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel. First awarded in 1901, it is one of the five original Nobel Prizes. Unlike the other Nobel categories, whose awarding institutions are Swedish, the Peace Prize is selected by a Norwegian committee and presented in Oslo, Norway. Both individuals and organizations may receive it. (nobelpeaceprize.org)
Origins and founding purpose
Nobel signed his final will on 27 November 1895. It directed that most of his estate should finance prizes for achievements benefiting humanity. The peace provision identified three areas: fraternity between nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and the organization and promotion of peace congresses. These reflected concerns associated with disarmament and the international peace movement of the nineteenth century. (nobelprize.org)
Nobel maintained a long correspondence with the Austrian author and peace campaigner Bertha von Suttner, who became the first female Peace Prize laureate in 1905. His correspondence with her documents his interest in questions of war and peace, although it does not provide a complete explanation of every provision in his will. (nobelprize.org)
The will assigned selection to five people chosen by the Storting, Norway’s parliament. Norway and Sweden were then united under one monarch, but Nobel left no definitive explanation for this division of responsibilities. After legal and administrative arrangements, the Nobel Foundation was established in 1900. The first Peace Prize, awarded the following year, was shared by Henry Dunant and Frédéric Passy. (nobelpeaceprize.org)
Administration and independence
The Norwegian Nobel Committee is the Peace Prize’s decision-making body within the broader system of Nobel Committees. Its five members are selected by the Storting for six-year terms. Although parliament appoints them, the committee is a private, independent institution: appointment does not give the Norwegian government authority over its selection of laureates. (nobelpeaceprize.org)
The director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute serves as committee secretary. Candidate assessments draw on specialist advice, including reports from Norwegian and international experts. The committee, rather than those advisers, makes the final decision. The Nobel Foundation provides the common institutional and financial framework, while the awarding bodies retain responsibility for selecting recipients. (nobelpeaceprize.org)
Nomination and selection
All living individuals and active organizations or institutions are eligible candidates. They cannot apply on their own behalf. Valid nominations must come from qualified nominators, including national parliamentarians and government members, certain university professors, directors of peace research or foreign-policy institutes, previous Peace Prize laureates, and specified representatives of laureate organizations. No invitation is required to submit a nomination. (nobelpeaceprize.org)
The ordinary nomination deadline is 31 January. Committee members may add candidates at their first meeting after that deadline. Valid nominations are reviewed, a shortlist is developed, and experts prepare further assessments. Discussions continue over several months, and shortlisted candidates may be reconsidered alongside other valid nominees. The committee seeks consensus, but a simple majority is sufficient. Its decision is final and cannot be appealed. (nobelpeaceprize.org)
Nomination is not an award, endorsement, or official honour. The Nobel institutions do not publish a current list of nominees or confirm individual nominations. Names and associated nomination records remain confidential for 50 years. Consequently, a public claim that someone has been nominated does not establish that the committee supports that candidate. (nobelpeaceprize.org)
Fields of achievement and recipients
The prize’s history includes peace campaigning, negotiations, humanitarian work, international cooperation, and the defence of human rights. Its interpretation has developed beyond a narrow focus on agreements between governments or reductions in armaments. Official award citations identify the particular contribution recognized in each case. (nobelprize.org)
Organizational recipients demonstrate this range. The International Committee of the Red Cross received the prize in 1917, 1944, and 1963. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees received it in 1954 and 1981. The United Nations and its secretary-general Kofi Annan shared the 2001 award. These examples also show that an organization can receive the prize more than once. (nobelprize.org)
Environmental concerns have also appeared in award decisions. Wangari Maathai received the 2004 prize for contributions to sustainable development, democracy, and peace. In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Al Gore shared the prize for developing and disseminating knowledge about human-caused climate change and laying foundations for countermeasures. These were Peace Prize decisions, not awards in a separate environmental Nobel category. (nobelprize.org)
Presentation and award rules
The award ceremony ordinarily takes place at Oslo City Hall on 10 December, the anniversary of Nobel’s death. The committee chair presents the award, and the laureate is asked to deliver a Nobel lecture. Recipients receive a diploma, a Nobel medal, and prize money. The Peace Prize medal was designed by Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland. (nobelpeaceprize.org)
The prize need not be awarded every year. Between 1901 and 2025, it was awarded 106 times and withheld on 19 occasions, including several years during the world wars. Dag Hammarskjöld received it posthumously in 1961. Since 1974, Nobel Foundation statutes have prohibited posthumous awards unless the recipient dies after the announcement. Once awarded, a Peace Prize cannot be revoked; the committee’s mandate does not extend to judging everything a laureate subsequently says or does. (nobelprize.org)