The Norwegian Peace Council takes a critical stance to the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarding the European Union with the Nobel Peace Prize for 2012. Read our press release here:
Head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee should resign:
The Nobel Peace Prize for 2012 is awarded to the European Union. The Norwegian Peace Council takes a critical stance to the endowment. Granting the EU the Nobel Peace Prize for 2012 indicates its highly political dimension, awarding it to a project that for the past year has proven to represent the opposite of peace. The EU suffers from an extensive democratic deficit, with violations of human rights along increasing social inequality. Awarding the prize to the EU illustrates how the Norwegian Nobel Committee repeatedly appoints recipients that are irrelevant and who only serves to consolidate an already well-established societal power structure.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee’s decision does not comply with Alfred Nobel’s mission statement, which sets out to reward peace activists’ efforts throughout the preceding year. To the contrary, the award promotes the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s own interests and political visions. This shows that Thorbjørn Jagland’s earlier assurance that Alfred Nobel’s will shall be respected is mere rhetoric.
The Norwegian Peace Council regards the bestowment of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2012 to the EU as a further confirmation of how the composition of the Norwegian Nobel Committee is overly political. We demand that the Norwegian Parliament considers the appointment of a new committee that includes competent peace activists and peace researchers with a much greater focus on international peace issues. The Norwegian Peace Council argues that the head of the Nobel Committee, Thorbjørn Jagland, should resign.
The Norwegian Peace Council Hedda Langemyr, director Tel: (+47) 95 27 48 22