Thursday 11 March 2010

237 candidates for Nobel Peace Prize

Yesterday the Norwegian Nobel Institute announced that 237 candidates have been nominated for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, 38 of whom are organisations. This crushes last year’s record number of 205 nominations. The Nobel Committee's decision will be announced on 4 October.
It can be added that for the first time ever a nominee has requested to be removed from the list. The Israeli scientist Mordechai Vanunu, who served 18 years in prison after disclosing to the world the existence of Israel’s illegal nuclear programme, and who enjoys much sympathy in Norway, has stated that he does not wish to receive a prize earlier awarded to his country’s current President, Shimon Peres (who shared the Prize with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasir Arafat in 1994).

2 comments:

  1. Requested to be removed, sir?

    I thought it was official policy to keep the list undisclosed for 50 years.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Indeed it is. Therefore it was surprising that Geir Lundestad, the secretary of the Nobel Committee and director of the Nobel Institute, publicly confirmed that Vanunu had been nominated and had asked not to be given the Prize.

    ReplyDelete

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