U.S. President Barack Obama To Join A Century Of Nobel History

December 9, 2009

Washington - On December 10, U.S. President Barack Obama will accept the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, the third sitting U.S. president to receive the honor. The prize is awarded to individuals and groups that have devoted themselves to working for peace among nations or abolishing or reducing standing armies or have held or promoted international peace conferences.

While five Nobel prizes are awarded annually, the peace prize is one of the world's most widely acclaimed awards, and past recipients have included some of the most highly respected and influential individuals of the past century.

"Work for fraternity between nations" is a frequently cited reason for awarding the prize, especially to human rights protectors. The first instance of this was when Albert Lutuli won the peace prize for his civil rights work in South Africa in 1960.

There have been several cases since, including Martin Luther King Jr. (1964) for leading the U.S. civil rights movement, Adolfo Perez Esquivel (1980) for human rights work in Latin America, Lech Walesa (1983) for fighting for workers' rights in Poland, Bishop Desmond Tutu (1984) for fighting apartheid in South Africa, the Dalai Lama (1989) for his work for rights for people in Tibet, and Bishop Belo (1996) for working to protect the people of East Timor (1996). Previous U.S. presidents awarded the prize were Woodrow Wilson (1919) for founding the League of Nations, and Jimmy Carter (2000) for his work on international conflict resolution, democracy and human rights, and economic development.

Generally less is known about the founder of the Nobel prizes, Alfred Nobel, a 19th-century Swedish chemist who amassed a fortune from his invention of dynamite, than about those who have received his prizes. As a self-educated inventor without a university degree, Nobel wanted to encourage other aspiring scholars. Consequently, he planned to leave his fortune to Swedish institutions that would make awards for physics, chemistry, medicine and literature.  But late in his life, his friend the Austrian Baroness Bertha von Suttner inspired him to establish a prize for peacemaking.

The first Nobel Peace Prize was awarded in 1901, five years after Nobel's death. Awards are announced each October, the month of Nobel's birth, and presented on December 10, the anniversary of his death. Nominations come from Nobel committee members, members of national governments, members of other official organizations and former recipients. Typically, about 150 nominations are considered each year.

On October 9, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced in Oslo that "the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons."

In making its announcement, the committee said that "for 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world's leading spokesman."