This Friday the 6th, the Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee has to award the prize Nobel Peace Prize 2023, in a world increasingly plagued by armed conflict, climate crises and food insecurity. For Western audiences this is War in Ukraine has dominated the headlines, but the award was given to figures associated with it Russia In the final two years, the committee is likely to choose a different option.
Unique among the Nobel Prizes based in SwedenThe Nobel Peace Prize is chosen by a fivemember Norwegian committee selected by the Norwegian Parliament. According to the will of Alfred Nobel, it is awarded to someone who has promoted “brotherhood” between nations, reduced armies, and held peace congresses. The award has been expanded to include all types of advocacy, from international organizations such as the World Food Programeven doctors who help rape survivors.
The possible political motives of the award are always closely examined to see what message the committee is sending to the world. The 2022 prize went to human rights activists from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, although nominations closed before the invasion. In 2021, the prize went to press freedom advocates, including one from Russia.
The medal and diploma were presented to the Nobel Prize winner at a ceremony on December 8, 2020 in New York, USA. Mary Altaffer/Pool via Portal Photo: Mary Altaffer / Portal
Here is a list of the Peace Research Institute In Oslowhich has selected winners in the past.
The return of Taliban turn on Afghanistan and the “Women, Life, Freedom” uprising in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini22 years old, in custody of the moral police will for an alleged violation of the country’s conservative dress code for women, drew attention to women fighting for rights in these and other countries.
Afghan activist Mahbouba Seraj was not afraid to speak out when the government took power Taliban August 2021 brought new restrictions for women, particularly their right to education.
“For God’s sake, please open schools for girls,” she told Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid in a documentary on Al Jazeera in August. “If you don’t sort this out, Mujahid, the whole world will be against you.”
Mahbouba Seraj, Afghan women’s rights activist, left, and Narges Mohammadi, Iranian women’s rights activist. Wakil Kohsar/Narges Mohammadi Foundation/AFP Photo: Wakil Kohsar/Narges Mohammadi Foundation/AFp
Unlike many activists in Afghanistan, Seraj refused to flee and continues to run several women’s projects in the country.
But as international aid dwindles and the Taliban continue to expand restrictions, Seraj appears increasingly angry, he said in a meeting UN Human Rights Council in September 2022: “How many times do I have to shout and say: ‘World, take care of us; do we die?
Iranian activist and journalist Narges Mohammadi, who began her decadeslong career promoting civil society and women’s rights, is speaking out in prison against the conditions in which she and her fellow inmates are held.
Mohammadi, 51, is accused of “spreading propaganda” and is serving a 10year sentence in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison. Last year she published the book “White Torture” about Iran’s use of solitary confinement and sensory deprivation against her and other prisoners.
On the anniversary of Amini’s death, Mohammadi and others protested in Evin prison and burned their headscarves, according to a post on one of their social media accounts.
A colleague of the activist, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons, said Mohammadi was “one of the few who has not only remained in Iran but continues to be active whether she is abroad or imprisoned.”
Iran is carrying out waves of arrests against activists, journalists and intellectuals to stamp out dissent and tighten social restrictions. After protests erupted following Amini’s death last year, Iranian authorities arrested around 20,000 people.
Indigenous activists Victoria TauliCorpuz (left) from the Philippines in 2018 and Juan Carlos Jintiach from Ecuador in 2009. Cristina Vega/Al Grillo/AFP Photo: Cristina Vega/Al Grillo/AFP
Victoria TauliCorpuz, a KankanaeyIgorot from the northern mountainous region of the Philippines, began her involvement as a youth leader during the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, protesting against a controversial dam that had reportedly flooded her people’s ancestral territory.
Decades later, she is best known as the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples from 2014 to 2020.
In 2018, the Philippine government was thenPresident Rodrigo Duterte added TauliCorpuz to a list of suspected terrorists. Human rights observers say this act of “redtagging” associating people with communism and terrorism is an intimidation tactic used as a weapon against government critics. It is also often preceded by attacks and even murders, which led TauliCorpuz to leave the country.
She “embodies the very problem she documented as special rapporteur: the criminalization of Indigenous activists,” the New York Times wrote in 2018.
Human Rights Watch researcher Carlos Conde welcomed his inclusion on the Nobel Peace Prize shortlist and said harassment and disappearances of indigenous activists in the Philippines continued under Duterte’s successor Ferdinand Marcos Jr. “Their nomination alone will highlight the serious situation they find themselves in and should prompt the international community to act,” he said.
Juan Carlos Jintiach of the Shuar people of Ecuador has spent decades defending indigenous communities, protecting the Amazon rainforest and working to combat climate change. He is executive director of the Global Alliance of Land Communities, a platform of indigenous organizations from three countries.