Nobel Peace Prize 2025: History, Meaning, and Fascinating Facts
And its ties to Norway
Just over three weeks ago the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced their pick for the Nobel Peace Prize 2025. This made headlines in Norway for several weeks and really was not something I gave much thought to prior to living here. Of course, I knew that a Nobel Peace Prize was awarded every year, but it was not something that was regularly on my radar. So naturally, I went down a rabbit hole to learn more about the prize and its ties to Norway. Enjoy.
According to nobelpeaceprize.org, all of the Nobel prizes were established by the will of Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel. Upon his death in 1896, his will declared the remainder of his fortune should be placed in a fund in which “the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind." Furthermore, the will clarified the fields for which the prizes should be awarded included chemistry, physics, medicine or physiology, literature, and peace.
The will also provided parameters for each category. Parameters for the Nobel Peace Prize stated the prize should go “to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations and the abolition or reduction of standing armies and the formation and spreading of peace congresses.”
The peace prize is awarded by a committee of five people selected by the Norwegian Storting or parliament as stipulated by the will as well. The parliament accepted this responsibility in April of 1897 and the committee of five people known as the Norwegian Nobel Committee has been in charge of selecting the Nobel Peace Prize winner since August of that same year. However, due to legal issues within the Nobel family, the first award did not occur until 1901 after the Nobel Foundation was established in Sweden in 1900. Fun fact: the first award was shared between the Frenchman Frederic Passy and Swiss Jean Henry Dunant.
So why Norway? No one really knows the answer to that question. It is unclear why Alfred Nobel chose Norway as the awarding committee for the Peace Prize. There are many theories or educated guesses as to why Nobel chose Norway for the Peace Prize, but we will never know his exact reasoning. This article sheds some light on some possible reasons.
The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded 105 times to 139 laureates, 19 of which were women, 92 men, and 28 organizations. Since World War II, the prize has been primarily focused on awarding efforts made from four principle areas: arms control and disarmament, peace negotiation, democracy and human rights, and work aimed towards a more organized and peaceful world. During the 21st century there has also been a shift to focus on efforts made to limit the harms of man-made climate change and threats to the environment.
Each year the Norwegian Nobel Institute receives hundreds of nominations for the Peace Prize. For example, there were a total of 338 candidates nominated to the institute this year. Candidates cannot be nominated posthumously, but they do not need to be alive when the award is announced, meaning a candidate may pass away between the time they are nominated for the award and the time they actually receive the award. Nominations are due by January 31st and the Norwegian Nobel Committee is able to add candidates to the nomination list at their first meeting in February. A short-list of nominees is agreed upon after discussion and the actual winner is chosen at the last Committee meeting before the announcement of the recipient(s) is made in October. If the Committee cannot reach a consensus, a majority vote is used to determine the laureate(s).
This year’s recipient (2025) is Maria Corina Machado. She was chosen for her work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her continued efforts toward a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy. The announcement article states she is “one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times.”
Following the October announcement of the recipient, there is a three-day long celebration held between December 9th and 11th. On the first day of the celebration a press conference is held at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo by the Laureate, and he or she also meets with the Norwegian Committee and Institute staff. Then the Nobel Peace Prize banquet and dinner is held at the Grand Hotel in the center of Oslo where the laureate is traditionally welcomed by a torchlight procession in their honor.
The following day, December 10th, holds the awards ceremony. This also commemorates the day of Alfred Nobel’s death and has been tradition since the first laureate was awarded in 1901. The ceremony is held at Oslo City Hall where nearly 1000 guests are in attendance. Guests range from the Norwegian Nobel Committee and the royal family to representatives from government and parliament as well as representatives from the Norwegian civil society. After the ceremony an interview with Al Jazeera is internationally broadcasted live.
The celebration concludes with the opening of the peace prize exhibit on December 11th. There is also a Nobel Peace Prize Forum held at Oslo University this day and the Nobel Peace Prize Concert which has been a tradition since 1944.
Oslo is home to the Nobel Peace Center which welcomes guests Tuesday through Sunday, excluding some days in which the museum is closed including a few national holidays and the days of the Nobel Peace Prize celebration. They offer weekend guided tours and have several exhibitions on display. There are also various events hosted at the museum.
We have not been able to make it to the Nobel Peace Center on either of our trips to Oslo just yet, but we hope to check it out the next time we are in town. It’s located in the city center at City Hall square. If visiting Norway during the gloomier months, it sounds like a nice respite from the dark, cold days of winter.
