STOCKHOLM, October 6. /TASS/. The Norwegian Nobel Committee will announce the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize winner in Oslo on Friday.

The Nobel Peace Prize, according to the will of Alfred Nobel, is awarded to those who 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." According to the last will of the Swedish industrialist, inventor and manufacturer, this prize, unlike other awards established in accordance with his will, is awarded not in Stockholm, but in Oslo. Nobel wrote that the decision to award the prize should be made by a committee of five people appointed by the Norwegian Parliament. By tradition, the members of the committee are mostly retired Norwegian politicians and former party leaders.

Recently, the more than a hundred-year-old wording has been interpreted quite broadly, which is why the decisions of the committee are often criticized. Laureates of the award in recent years have included politicians, human rights activists, political activists and humanitarian organizations with merits in a variety of fields.

In 2022, the award went to Belarusian activist Ales Belyatsky as well as to Memorial, a Russian human rights center designated as a foreign agent in Russia, and the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties. The laureates "represent civil society in their home countries," the Norwegian Nobel Committee said in a statement back then.

Nomination of candidates

A total of 305 candidates have been nominated for the prize, including 212 individuals and 93 organizations. Among them is 20-year-old Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg and her movement Fridays for Future.

The largest number of nominees - 376 - was recorded in 2016.

The full list of nominees is kept in secret and can be published only 50 years later.

Director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo Henrik Urdal, who compiles lists of possible candidates every year, believes that this year’s award may go to Iranian human rights activist, Narges Mohammadi, and Afghan journalist and women’s rights activist, Mahbouba Seraj.

Other possible candidates are Philippine-born indigenous rights activist Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Ecuadorian indigenous leader Juan Carlos Jintiach, the International Court of Justice, Myanmar's representative to the United Nations Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun and the country’s National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC). San-Francisco-based Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG), which analyses human rights violations all over the world, was also suggested to be among potential nominees.

About the award

The Nobel Peace Prize was first awarded in 1901. There were years when the winner in this nomination was not announced, the last time it happened in 1972. The reasons were World War 1 and 2, contradictions between the members of the committee and "lack of worthy candidates."

The award ceremony will take place in Oslo on December 10, on the anniversary of Nobel's death. The size of the monetary component of the Nobel Prize will be 11 million kroner ($1,007,344 at the current exchange rate).