Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the Nobel Prizes established by Alfred Nobel, a Swedish inventor and scientist. The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded for achievements in a broad range of areas including laureate's work for peace, attempts at resolution of wars and conflict around the world, and human rights issues. As designated in the will of Alfred Nobel, the Nobel Peace Prize shall be distributed "… to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses."

| Chemistry | Economics | Literature | Medicine | Peace | Physics |

Nobel Laureates
(Click on laureate names for biographies)
Year Winner Achievement
2010 Liu Xiaobo "for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China"
2009    
2008 Martti Ahtisaari "for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts"
2007 Albert Arnold (Al) Gore Jr. and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change"
2006 Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank "for their efforts to create economic and social development from below"
2005 International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

and Mohamed ElBaradei

"for their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest possible way"
2004 Wangari Maathai "for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace"
2003 Shirin Ebadi "for her efforts for democracy and human rights. She has focused especially on the struggle for the rights of women and children"
2002 Jimmy Carter "for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development"
2002 United Nations (U.N.) and Kofi Annan "for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world"
2000 Kim Dae-jung "for his work for democracy and human rights in South Korea and in East Asia in general, and for peace and reconciliation with North Korea in particular"
1999 Médecins Sans Frontières "in recognition of the organization's pioneering humanitarian work on several continents"
1998 John Hume and

David Trimble

"for their efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict in Northern Ireland"
1997 International Campaign to Ban Landmines and Jody Williams "for their work for the banning and clearing of anti-personnel mines"
1996 Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo and José Ramos-Horta "for their work towards a just and peaceful solution to the conflict in East Timor"
1995 Joseph Rotblat and Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs "for their efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international politics and, in the longer run, to eliminate such arms"
1994 Yasser Arafat,

Shimon Peres, and

Yitzhak Rabin

"for their efforts to create peace in the Middle East"
1993 Nelson Mandela and

F.W. de Klerk

"for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa"
1992 Rigoberta Menchú Tum "in recognition of her work for social justice and ethno-cultural reconciliation based on respect for the rights of indigenous peoples"
1991 Aung San Suu Kyi "for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights"
1990 Mikhail Gorbachev "for his leading role in the peace process which today characterizes important parts of the international community"
1989 His Holiness the XIVth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso "The Committee wants to emphasize the fact that the Dalai Lama in his struggle for the liberation of Tibet consistently has opposed the use of violence. He has instead advocated peaceful solutions based upon tolerance and mutual respect in order to preserve the historical and cultural heritage of his people."
1988 United Nations Peacekeeping Forces "The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the 1988 Nobel Peace Prize is to be awarded to the United Nations Peacekeeping Forces. It is the considered opinion of the Committee that the Peacekeeping Forces through their efforts have made important contributions towards the realization of one of the fundamental tenets of the United Nations. Thus, the world organization has come to play a more central part in world affairs and has been invested with increasing trust."
1987 Oscar Arias Sánchez "for his work for peace in Central America, efforts which led to the accord signed in Guatemala on August 7 this year"
1986 Elie Wiesel "The Norwegian Nobel Committee has resolved that the Nobel Peace Prize for 1986 should be awarded to the author, Elie Wiesel. It is the Committee's opinion that Elie Wiesel has emerged as one of the most important spiritual leaders and guides in an age when violence, repression and racism continue to characterise the world."
1985 International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War  
1984 Desmond Tutu "The Committee has attached importance to Desmond Tutu's role as a unifying leader figure in the campaign to resolve the problem of apartheid in South Africa."
1983 Lech Walesa  
1982 Alva Myrdal and

Alfonso García Robles

 
1981 Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees "The Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees has, in the opinion of the Committee, carried out work of major importance to assist refugees, despite the many political difficulties with which it has had to contend."
1980 Adolfo Pérez Esquivel "Pérez Esquivel, architect and sculptor by profession, has held the chair of architecture in Buenos Aires. In 1974, having decided to devote his life to the struggle for human rights, he took on the day-to-day running of the organisation Servicio Paz y Justicia, which has its head office in Buenos Aires as well as subsidiaries in a number of Latin American countries."
1979 Mother Teresa "In making the award the Norwegian Nobel Committee has expressed its recognition of Mother Teresa's work in bringing help to suffering humanity. This year the world has turned its attention to the plight of children and refugees, and these are precisely the categories for whom Mother Teresa has for many years worked so selflessly."
1978 Anwar al-Sadat and Menachem Begin  
1977 Amnesty International  
1976 Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan  
1975 Andrei Sakharov "Sakharov's fearless personal commitment in upholding the fundamental principles for peace between men is a powerful inspiration for all true work for peace. Uncompromisingly and with unflagging strength Sakharov has fought against the abuse of power and all forms of violation of human dignity, and he has fought no less courageously for the idea of government based on the rule of law."
1974 Seán MacBride and

Eisaku Sato

 
1973 Henry Kissinger  
1972 The prize money for 1972 was allocated to the Main Fund
1971 Willy Brandt  
1970 Norman Borlaug  
1969 International Labour Organization
1968 René Cassin "It is this respect for human worth, irrespective of nationality, race, religion, sex, or social position, which animates Professor Cassin's life and work. And it is primarily for his contribution to the protection of human worth and the rights of man, as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that the Nobel Committee of the Norwegian Parliament today awards the Nobel Peace Prize to Réne Cassin."
1967 The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section  
1966 The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section  
1965 United Nations Children's Fund  
1964 Martin Luther King  
1963 International Committee of the Red Cross and League of Red Cross Societies  
1962 Linus Pauling "... since 1946 has campaigned ceaselessly, not only against nuclear weapons tests, not only against the spread of these armaments, not only against their very use, but against all warfare as a means of solving international conflicts.
1961 Dag Hammarskjöld  
1961    
1960 Albert Lutuli  
1959 Philip Noel-Baker "Throughout this span of time, for forty-five years, Philip John Noel-Baker has dedicated his efforts to the service of suffering humanity, whether in time of war or in the intervals between wars. But above all else, his efforts to prevent war breaking out have been tireless and ceaseless."
1958 Georges Pire "The Nobel Committee of the Norwegian Parliament has this year awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to the Belgian Dominican, Father Georges Pire, for his efforts to help refugees to leave their camps and return to a life of freedom and dignity."
1957 Lester Bowles Pearson  
1956 The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section  
1955 The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section  
1954 Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees  
1953 George C. Marshall  
1952 Albert Schweitzer  
1951 Léon Jouhaux  
1950 Ralph Bunche  
1949 Lord Boyd Orr  
1948 The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
1947 Friends Service Council and American Friends Service Committee  
1946 Emily Greene Balch and John R. Mott  
1945 Cordell Hull  
1944 International Committee of the Red Cross  
1943 The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section  
1942 The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section  
1941 The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section  
1940 The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section  
1939 The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section  
1938 Nansen International Office for Refugees  
1937 Robert Cecil  
1936 Carlos Saavedra Lamas  
1935 Carl von Ossietzky  
1934 Arthur Henderson
1933 Sir Norman Angell  
1932 The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section  
1931 Jane Addams, and Nicholas Murray Butler  
1930 Nathan Söderblom  
1929 Frank B. Kellogg  
1928 The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section
1927 Ferdinand Buisson and Ludwig Quidde  
1927    
1926 Aristide Briand and Gustav Stresemann  
1925 Sir Austen Chamberlain and Charles G. Dawes  
1924 The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section  
1923 The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section  
1922 Fridtjof Nansen  
1921 Hjalmar Branting and Christian Lange  
1920 Léon Bourgeois  
1919 Woodrow Wilson  
1918 The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section  
1917 International Committee of the Red Cross  
1916 The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section  
1915 The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section  
1914 The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section  
1913 Henri La Fontaine  
1912 Elihu Root  
1911 Tobias Asser and

Alfred Fried

 
1910 Permanent International Peace Bureau  
1909 Auguste Beernaert and Paul Henri d'Estournelles de Constant  
1908 Klas Pontus Arnoldson and Fredrik Bajer  
1907 Ernesto Teodoro Moneta and Louis Renault  
1906 Theodore Roosevelt  
1905 Bertha von Suttner  
1904 Institute of International Law  
1903 Randal Cremer  
1903    
1902 Élie Ducommun and

Albert Gobat

 
1901 Henry Dunant and

Frédéric Passy