Core peace issues

The Nobel Peace Prize has for too many occasions been given to general good purposes, like last year's prize to climate change issues (Al Gore and the intergovernmental panel), and in that way helped to watered down core peace issues like fighting nuclear weapons, working with conflict resolution and non violence.

Many efforts are valuable and may contribute to peace, but it was a specific idea of Alfred Nobel to set up a peace prize in his will, in addition to medicine, physics, literature etc.

In his will, Alfred Nobel writes that the prize is intended for “fredsförfäktare” – which is a very nice old word in the Swedish language. You may translate that to English as “champions of peace”, in any case it has a much stronger value than the usual translation “promoters of peace”.

Is it legal ?

One could even question whether the current interpretation of the will of Alfred Nobel would stand a legal test. The literature prize is not given to film producers, no matters how good they are, and the Nobel prize for medicine is not given to for instance Al Gore, even if the climate problem is one of the most important health issues we have on earth in the future!

IPB former vice president Fredrik Heffermehl (email: fredpax@online.no) in Norway has stressed the need for questioning the rather pragmatic policies of the Norwegian Nobel Committee and even the legality of their interpretation of the will of Alfred Nobel.

But whatever will happen to such a discussion, the absolute best way to ensure that the Nobel Peace Prize will be given to a Champion of Peace would be to give the committee enough good names to make their choice.

Attention

No doubt the cause of disarmament and demilitarisation would gain very much from the attention that the Nobel Peace Prize stimulates, both at the annual event in December, and on the day of the announcement.

That is, in short, why your response with name-suggestions for the IPB nomination is requested this year more than than ever before.

With my best greetings

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