305 nominations for Nobel Peace Prize

OSLO - A total of 305 nominations have been submitted for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, the Nobel Institute said on Wednesday, remaining tight-lipped about the names on the list.

The nominations – fewer than the record 376 registered in 2016 – comprise 212 individuals and 93 organisations, the Oslo-based institute said on its website.

In line with Nobel statutes, the identity of the candidates is kept confidential for 50 years.

But those eligible to nominate – including former laureates, lawmakers and Cabinet ministers from any country in the world, and some university professors – are free to reveal the name of the person or organisation they have proposed.

Like last year, most of the names publicly disclosed so far are involved in the nearly year-long conflict that has been raging in Ukraine, or opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

They include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg and a Ukrainian group working to establish an international war crimes tribunal.

Others known to have been nominated are jailed Putin opponents –

anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny,

who was the victim of a poisoning attack, journalist and

political activist Vladimir Kara-Murza

and the pro-democracy

youth movement Vesna.

Also believed to be on the list this year are

climate activists Greta Thunberg

of Sweden and Vanessa Nakate of Uganda, Iranian

women’s activist Masih Alinejad

and her anti-hijab movement My Stealthy Freedom, as well as the Salvation Army.

Chinese and Hong Kong pro-democracy activists are believed to have been nominated (Chow Hang-tung, Peng Lifa, the group Uighur Tribunal), as well as Myanmar’s

ambassador to the UN Kyaw Moe Tun

– sacked by the junta but still in his position – and the anti-junta coalition NUCC, and Maggie Gobran, who helps the poor in Cairo’s slums.

Last year, the Nobel Peace Prize was shared by Russian human rights group Memorial, Ukraine’s Centre for Civil Liberties (CCL) and jailed Belarusian rights advocate Ales Bialiatski,

a trio representing the three nations at the centre of the war in Ukraine,

which all three have criticised. AFP