The prize, which has been awarded since 1901, is not selected by an international committee, but instead is decided by five Norwegians appointed by the country`s Parliament.
Q: Who picks the Nobel Peace Prize winner?
A: Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor who established the prize, stipulated in his will that the Peace Prize be awarded by a committee "of five persons, to be elected by the Norwegian Storting," the Parliament.
For decades after its founding, the committee consisted of current members of Parliament. In an effort for the panel to appear more independent, a rule was made in 1936 barring current members of the government from joining the panel. In 1977, that rule was expanded to include all members of Parliament.
Today, the committee still tends to reflect the Storting`s political parties, and many members are former members of Parliament, including a former prime minister.
Q: Who are the current members?
A: The current committee consists of three women and two men. They are elected to six-year terms, but can be re-elected.
- Kaci Kullmann Five, the Nobel Committee chairwoman, is a former member of Parliament and former chairwoman of the Conservative Party. She joined the committee in 2003.
- Berit Reiss-Andersen, deputy chairwoman, is a lawyer and former state secretary in the Justice Department. She has been a committee member since 2012.
- Inger-Marie Ytterhorn is a former member of Parliament and a senior political adviser to the Progress Party. She has been a committee member since 2000.
- Thorbjorn Jagland is secretary-general of the Council of Europe and was Norway`s prime minister from 1996 to 1997. He has been on the panel ... since 2009.
- Henrik Syse is a researcher at the Peace Research Institute of Oslo and joined the committee this year.
Q: Are the meetings public?
A: All of the nominations and the committee`s deliberations are kept secret.
Last year, Geir Lundestad, a historian and formerly the committee`s senior employee of 25 years, wrote a "tell-all" book in which he revealed the "secret tussles behind controversial Nobel Peace Prizes over the last quarter century," according to The Associated Press.
Lundestad, who was the committee`s secretary and not a voting member, accused Jagland of leaking information about the deliberations to the press. In turn, the panel released a statement accusing Lundestad of having "broken several points of his vow of silence" in his memoir, "Secretary of Peace: 25 years with the Nobel Prize."
Q: Where do they meet?
A: The committee is housed in a 19th-century mansion in Oslo, called the Norwegian Nobel Institute. The Nobel Peace Prize is the only one of the five prizes chosen and awarded by Norway instead of Sweden.
The committee meets in a room in the building that has been left virtually unchanged since 1905, but for the portraits of successive winners hanging on the walls.
Q: Who can be nominated?
A: Anyone can be suggested for a Nobel Peace Prize, but only a select group is allowed to submit formal nominations. That group includes members of national legislatures and international courts, professors, previous prize winners and current or former members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
Q: How are submissions made?
A: The committee accepts nominations by email, as well as by mail.
Q:. When is the decision made?
A: Each year, the deadline for submissions is in February. Between March and May, the committee prepares a short list, and from June to August the nominees are reviewed. The laureates are announced in October, and by tradition the Peace Prize is awarded on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel`s death.
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