Nobel Peace Prize Race Heats Up
Al Gore and Shiela Watt-Cloutier take the Lead with Green Issues
Nominees are waiting for 12 October 2007 when this years Nobel Peace Prize winner will be announced. Oprah Winfrey, Al Gore and Sheila Watt-Cloutier are in the running.
The 181 nominations received for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize are believed to include names ranging from former US Vice-President Al Gore to Irena Sendler, a woman who rescued Polish children in World War 2. But nobody really knows, because officially it is a secret that has to be kept for 50 years. However, near the halfway mark, it looks as though environmental issues may triumph and that Gore and Watt-Cloutier may emerge joint winners this year.
In releasing the final count in February, Secretary of the five-member Awards Committee, Geir Lundestad would give only a total count - 135 individuals and 46 organizations nominated - without listing any names. All in keeping with the rules.
Six Nobel Prizes are awarded each year in the areas of:
- Peace
- Chemistry
- Physics
- Medicine
- Literature
- Economics
The prizes are named after Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, who created the prizes in his will. He donated a sizable portion of his estate to fund the prizes and decided who would judge the winners of each award. He also named the five prize categories (Economics was added during the 1960s).
Today each prize is valued at over $1,000,000. The reason a Nobel Prize is such a "big deal" is not really the monetary value of the award, but the fact that the award has been presented since 1901, long enough for everyone to have heard about it. All six prizes are widely regarded as the supreme commendations in their subject areas.
Who are this year’s Nobel Peace Prize nominees?
Although nobody officially knows who is nominated, those making nominations sometimes announce them. According to Nobel Prize nominating rules, any "professor of social sciences, history, philosophy, law and theology" and any judge or national legislator in any country, among others, can nominate anyone for a Nobel Peace Prize.”
This year it seems the nominees include Al Gore, for his campaign to draw attention to the threat of global warming; Canadian Inuit environmentalist Sheila Watt-Cloutier for her work in the Polar regions; Bolivian President Evo Morales; US TV talk show host Oprah Winfrey; UN Aids Envoy to Africa Stephen Lewis; Taiwanese activist Shih Ming-Teh; Malaysia's former premier, Mahathir Mohamad, and peace negotiators including ex-Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari.
Other announced names and organizations that have been mentioned include Sail Training International, a British-based charity helping young people develop through sailing and Polish-American Irena Sendler who saved the lives of Jewish children during World War 2.
Lundestad said this year's winner will probably be announced on 12 October. The actual prize always is presented on the 10th of December , the anniversary of the death of its creator, Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel.
The Nobel Laureates, in five categories, take center stage in Stockholm on 10 December when they receive the Nobel Prize amount from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.
In Oslo, the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates receive their Nobel Peace Prize from the Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee in the presence of King Harald V of Norway on the same day.
This is the official online source where you first learn the names of the new Nobel Laureates in October each year.
List of Nobel Peace Prize winners here.
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