They have been nominated with a total of 318 for what many say is “the most prestigious award in the world”. The committee charged with selecting a winner is rarely predictable, but we have already made a small selection of the biggest contenders to win the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.
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Greta Thunberg
A name that doesn’t sound unfamiliar to anyone yet. The Swedish teen and climate activist was crowned Time’s Person Of the Year 2019. Last year she was also on the list of favorites to win the Nobel Peace Prize after getting millions of young people worldwide to protest for the climate. The corona crisis made it more difficult to undertake zero-emission voyages again, as it did before with the sailboat. But she did not ignore her activism. She launched a campaign in April to support Unicef in protecting young lives during the pandemic. She has also emphasized several times in recent months that covid-19 and climate change must be fought together.
–Photo: AP
Jacinda Ardern
She became New Zealand’s youngest ever prime minister in 2017 and the second in office ever to have a child while prime minister. Ardern also made history when she took her daughter to a session of the UN. For Time magazine, she was a beacon of change, earning her a place in their top 100 most influential people. Vogue called her “young, dynamic, forward-looking and unashamedly progressive”.
She has been praised for her leadership in recent months. Because as Prime Minister of New Zealand, she managed to keep corona numbers very low with her policy. New Zealand is one of the countries with the lowest number of deaths from Corona. Her powerful yet empathetic response to the Christchurch massacre already made her a favorite to win the award last year and she is at the top of that list again this year.
–Photo: AFP
WHO
The pandemic has suddenly made the World Health Organization incredibly famous. And while it has received a lot of criticism for its slow response to the growing threat of the coronavirus, many believe it has a chance to win. WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus would also be a big contender.
–Photo: AFP
Donald Trump
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly stated that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. For example, in January 2020 he said that the 2019 prize – awarded to Abiy Ahmed – should actually have gone to him. In 2018, Trump said he deserved the Nobel Prize for his efforts to convince North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to give up nuclear weapons. However, a recent UN report shows that North Korea is continuing its nuclear weapons program.
According to the White House, Trump has been nominated this year for his leadership in mediating the Abraham Accords that allowed the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to formally normalize relations with Israel. In a signing ceremony, Trump presented his “Middle East Peace Plan” as a victory, although there is still no solution to the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “The Abraham Accords formalize the shifting power dynamics already underway in the Middle East, analysts say, but whether those dynamics lead to more or less stability remains an open question,” said Time magazine.
But just because the president has been nominated doesn’t mean he is considered a worthy candidate. Because any person who meets the criteria could be nominated by someone else for the award, and it is very likely that every US president will have his name submitted. Even though the president believes he deserves the award, he is unlikely to win it.
–Photo: AP
Loujain al-Hathloul
Saudi Arabian authorities arrested Loujain al-Hathloul – along with several other women’s rights activists – in May 2018, just a month before the country lifted its long-standing driving ban. Two years later, the 29-year-old is still in prison. “When the women were sent to prison in May 2018,” exiled Saudi Arabian activist Manal al-Sharif wrote for Time last year, “it was a very clear sign from the government that these were not real reforms. Simply put, it’s a war against women. ”
According to her sister Lina al-Hathloul, Loujain was granted freedom in exchange for publicly denying that she was tortured in prison. “She would rather be in prison. She prefers to follow her values and fight rather than be released, leaving those two years in prison in vain, ”Lina al-Hathloul told Time.
–Photo: REUTERS
They also have a chance
The Black Lives Matter movement is also in the running for the prize for its role in directing global attention to systematic racism and police brutality. Freedom of the press watchdogs Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders, the European Union and the UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, also have a chance to win the prize. Filmmaker and naturalist David Attenborough, Soudanese activist Alaa Salah and Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny also have a chance to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
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