QCOSTARICA – Costa Rica’s Oscar Arias Sanchez is among the 103 individuals and 22 organizations (as of 2014) recipients of the Nobel Peace Price, awarded him in 1987, for his work for peace in Central America, efforts which led to the accord signed in Guatemala.
The late Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel left a bulk of his fortune to create the Nobel Prizes to honour work in five areas, including peace. In 1985 in his will, he said one part was dedicated to that 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.”
The first Nobel Peace Prize was awarded in 1901 to Jean Henri Dunant, founder of the International Committee of the Red Cross and French peace activist and economist Frederic Passy.
Nobel Prize:
- The 2015 Nobel Prize Laureates will be announced October 5th-12th.
- The 2014 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to India’s Kailash Satyarthi and Pakistan’s Malala Yousafzai for their struggles against the suppression of children and for young people’s rights, including the right to education.
Facts:
- Nobel prize recipients are called laureates.
- Sixteen women have won the Nobel Peace Prize, more than any other Nobel Prize.
- The Nobel Committee keep the names of laureate nominees confidential for fifty years before they are released to the public.
- The award consists of a medal, a personal diploma, and a cash prize (8-million Swedish kroner (SEK) – approximately $955,400 U.S. dollars as of September 2015).
- The main inscription on one side of the Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, and Literature Nobel Prize medals is the same: “Inventas vitam juvat excoluisse per artes,” loosely translated, “And they who bettered life on earth by new found mastery.” Word for word translation, “inventions enhance life which is beautified through art.”
- The Peace medal has the inscription “Pro pace et fraternitate gentium,” translated, “For the peace and brotherhood of men.”
- The Economics medal has no inscription.
- Nobel prizes are announced in advance but awarded on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death.
- The Nobel Prizes for Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature and Economics are awarded at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden.
- The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded at its own ceremony in Oslo, Norway. Periodically, no prize has been awarded. This happened most recently in 1972.
- The number of winners is limited to three per category.
- A person must be alive to be nominated. If they die during the consideration period, their name will be removed. Only if a person is announced as a winner and dies prior to the ceremony, will a posthumous award be given.
- The Nobel Foundation protects the common interests of the Prize Awarding institutions: the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
Timeline:
- 1866 – Swedish chemist, engineer and industrialist Alfred Nobel invents dynamite. He later builds companies and laboratories in more than 20 countries around the world.
- December 10, 1896 – Nobel dies in Italy at the age of 63. His will endows awards in five categories: Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature, and Peace.
- June 29, 1900 – The Nobel Foundation is established. It is the central body of the Nobel organization responsible for awarding the Nobel Prizes.
- 1901 – The first Nobel Prizes are awarded.
- 1939-1943 – No Nobel Peace Prizes are awarded.
- 1968 – A sixth award, Economics, is added by the Bank of Sweden (Sveriges Riksbank) in the memory of Alfred Nobel.
