From the head of NATO to the president of Ukraine, many of the nominations put forward for the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize before the deadline on Tuesday are colored by the war in Ukraine – without that necessarily making them favorites.
Among the individuals and organizations suggested to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, the few names made public generally relate to actors in the conflict that has been tearing Ukraine apart for nearly a year or to the opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
According to Nobel statutes, the list of candidates is kept secret for at least 50 years. But the thousands of sponsors (parliamentarians and ministers from all countries, former winners, certain university professors, etc.) are free to reveal the identity of their “foal”.
The 2023 price will be announced in early October. Each year, several hundred names – 343 in 2022 – are proposed.
An elected representative from the Norwegian populist right has thus hinted that he would propose Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has become a symbol of resistance to the Russian invasion launched on February 24, 2022, for the prize.
The same MP also submitted the name of his compatriot Jens Stoltenberg who, according to him, “deserves the prize for his exemplary work as Secretary General of NATO in a difficult period for the alliance: the brutal offensive and not provoked against a peaceful neighboring country”.
Also in the running are Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, proposed by the President of the Pakistani Senate for his peace efforts “before and during the Russia-Ukraine war”.
As well as opponents of Mr. Putin’s regime, such as Alexeï Navalny, an anti-corruption activist thrown behind bars in Russia after being the victim of an attempted poisoning there, and the journalist Vladimir Kara-Mourza, imprisoned after he also survived, he says, two poisonings.
“We know today that the basis of this war is a Russian regime built on corruption and oppression,” said the Norwegian MP who nominated Mr. Kara-Mourza.
He “is taking part in the most important political fight to end the war in Ukraine and guarantee future peace in Europe”, she argued, quoted by the NTB agency.
A “Eurocentric” Nobel?
The two previous editions of the Nobel have already given pride of place to criticism from the strongman of Moscow.
Last year, the prize went to a trio made up of the Russian NGO Memorial – which the Russian justice ordered the dissolution – the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties and the imprisoned Belarusian activist Ales Bialiatski.
“This award is not for Vladimir Putin […] except that his government, like the Belarusian government, is an authoritarian government that suppresses human rights activists,” Nobel committee chair Berit Reiss-Andersen said.
At the award ceremony, Memorial representative Ian Ratchinsky castigated “the mad and criminal war of aggression against Ukraine”.
In 2021, it was another Kremlin itchy hair, journalist Dmitri Mouratov, editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, who was rewarded with his Filipino colleague Maria Ressa, both appearing as heralds of freedom of the press. flouted in their respective countries.
Director of the Oslo Peace Research Institute (Prio), Henrik Urdal considers it unlikely that the Nobel Committee will award a layer for the 2023 prize, under penalty of being considered a “Eurocentrist”.
“I doubt they will award a third prize in a row that would point in the direction of Russia,” he told AFP.
“It was difficult for the committee to look beyond last year because the conflict in Ukraine was so big and dominant… but it is also essential to shine the spotlight on other international issues in other parts of the world” , he added.
A peace prize for conservationists comes up regularly among recent speculations.
Norwegian Green MP Lan Marie Berg announced on Tuesday that she had named two young climate activists, 20-year-old Swedish Greta Thunberg, whose name has been circulating for years, and Ugandan Vanessa Nakate, 27.