Will Zelensky get the Nobel Peace Prize? –

Zelensky was the favorite on the betting charts last year as well. The award then went to the Ukrainian Center for Civil Rights (CCL), and the Russian and Belarusian Alice Bialgatsky Monument in Viasna.

This year, Zelensky is at the top of many betting lists, beating people like Alexei Navalny, Belarus’ opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaja, and international organizations like the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court.

Uyghur leader Ilham Tohti has also been highlighted in the lists of possibilities, while the most curious features are Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Climate activist Greta Thunberg is also on the lists.

doubt

– I find it very unlikely that Zelensky will be able to win the Nobel Peace Prize, Erling Borgen of the Norwegian Peace Council tells NTB.

– Zelensky is leading a fair resistance fight against the Russian invasion, but I do not think the committee will award the peace prize to the head of a country at war, says director Henrik Urdal in Brio.

Borgen asserts that he supports Ukraine’s defensive struggle against what he refers to as Putin’s vile war. However, he believes it is against Nobel’s will to award the Peace Prize to a party in an active war.

– I see that Zelensky is at the top of the lists. “I can’t imagine that the Nobel Committee would choose the leader of the warring party as this year’s Nobel Prize winner,” Borgen says.

Urdal agrees. It is believed that betting companies are primarily interested in having names that people know and want to bet on.

For the past two years, the Peace Prize has gone to actors who challenge Vladimir Putin. First to journalist Dmitry Muratov in 2021, then to three-leaf clovers from Ukraine, Belarus and Russia last year.

Urdal says: “The field is much more open this year, and not a single case has emerged.”

“I want to kill you”

Four favorites from Borgen

Borgen believes this year’s Peace Prize may go to a completely different player. He has chosen four favourites:

– She is a prominent human rights defender in Iran. For several years, she fought for women’s rights in Iran. She was given 12 different prison sentences totaling 30 years, Burgin says.

• Julian Assange, Australia.

By publishing documents on war crimes committed by the United States and its allies, Julian Assange has contributed to a global public debate about war, with a particular focus on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Thanks to the work of Assange and WikiLeaks, the public has become aware of the brutal realities of war, Borgen says.

• European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

– Many international lawyers believe that the Court is the most effective and important human rights court in the world. Borgen says that all European countries support the work of the court, but Russia is no longer present in the court after the Council of Europe excluded the country due to the war in Ukraine.

• Ilham Tohti, the Uyghur leader imprisoned in China.

– Tohti is a professor of economics and belongs to the Muslim minority in China, the Uyghurs. He is imprisoned in China for life imprisonment. He is the most important Uighur voice, not only criticizing China, but also calling for dialogue. In September 2014, Ilham was sentenced to life in prison for “separatism,” a charge Chinese authorities often use against Uyghurs who speak out about human rights abuses, Borgen says.

Activists top Urdal’s list

Brio, on the other hand, has a list of top 5 nominees, but he has the most faith in the joint award.

Human rights activists Narges Mohammadi and Mehbooba Siraj, from Iran and Afghanistan, at the summit.

– It represents one of the most important issues. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. There is an opportunity to point this out. Urdal says that Iran and Afghanistan are countries and regions where women’s rights are under severe pressure.

In second place were the UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Rights, Victoria Tauli Corpuz, and Juan Carlos Gentiash, who coordinates international cooperation with COICA, an association that brings together all national indigenous organizations in the Amazon region.

– These are also human rights activists and a topic that we think would have been good for the committee to have focused on. It’s about Indigenous rights and the peaceful struggle for Indigenous rights, but it’s also specifically about the efforts that these two people have made for this cause. It will also be able to point to one of the great themes of our time, the struggle for the environment, and put it in a peace perspective, says Urdal.

Now it’s over

In third place comes the highest court of the United Nations, which is the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

We are now in a situation where more and more of these multilateral arenas are under pressure. There is increasing polarization at the international level. “We feel it is important to point out that we have meeting places where conflicts can be resolved peacefully,” Urdal says.

In fourth place was Myanmar’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Kyaw Moe Tun, and the Myanmar National Unity Advisory Council, while the Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG) came in fifth place.

Such as controversial prices

Both Assange and Tohti will be recipients of the peace prize linked to the controversy. Assange because of the US legal measures against him, I got lost because of China’s policy. Likewise, awarding Mohammadi and Sarraj could be controversial in Iran and Afghanistan.

-I like controversial awards that can challenge authority and abusers of authority. “I think that’s quite remarkable, and sometimes the Nobel Committee has succeeded in doing this,” Borgen says.

Urdal believes this year’s committee will look good in the world.

– When there are two awards focused on Ukraine and Russia, it probably means that I think the committee should and will try to look beyond Europe this time. It is important that this award recognizes the important contributions made outside Europe, says Urdal.