A Nobel Peace Prize for Assange?

Posted By Suzanne Merkelson Wednesday, February 2, 2011 - 2:07 PM Share

Feb. 1 was the last day the Norwegian Nobel Committee accepts nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize, and one potential nominee for the 2011 prize has already been revealed: WikiLeaks. The organization was nominated by Norwegian parliamentarian Snorre Valen, who called WikiLeaks "one of the most important contributors to freedom of speech and transparency" in the 21st century.

Nobel nominations are not a terribly exclusive honor -- the committee accepts them from members of all national parliaments, law and political science professors, and previous winners. (The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that a Russian official also may have nominated Assange.) And there are plenty of reasons to doubt that Assange will actually win the prize, which is announced in October. Journalist and Nobel Peace Prize specialist Scott London invoked Alfred Nobel's will, which calls for "fraternity among nations," as a reason why Assange's odds are not so great. "It might be truer to say that he has undermined that fraternity by creating a culture of anxiety and suspicion in international affairs, especially between countries in volatile regions like the Middle East," London told the AFP. Assange's still-unresolved sexual assault charges won't help his case, either.

But the Nobel nomination process happens so far in advance of the actual award that it can be difficult to predict a winner. This year's timing is especially awkward, given the enormous human rights story currently unfolding, although no potential nominees have emerged yet from Egypt's largely leaderless and amorphous anti-government protests (the opposition's best-known figure, Mohamed ElBaradei, already has a Nobel). The five-member Nobel committee itself can also contribute to the list of nominees at its first meeting of the year, at the end of the month. "Maybe a leader [of the popular uprisings in the Arab world] will stand out by then," Nobel expert and historian Asle Sveen told the AFP.

Other speculated nominees include human rights activists Svetlana Gannushkina of Russia and Sima Samar of Afghanistan.

CARL DE SOUZA/AFP/Getty Images

EXPLORE:EUROPE, HUMAN RIGHTS, INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS, WIKILEAKS
 

BINGO

12:40 PM ET

February 3, 2011

Peace Prize

Given that the Nobel Peace prize was given to Al Gore for a deeply flawed movie on global warming, and to President Obama for doing nothing, Mr. Assange is a completely appropriate candidate.

 

JUST AN AFRICAN

1:28 PM ET

February 3, 2011

really??

Peace prize?? for endangering the lives of freedom fighters and democrats in small countries? For revealing the secrets that protected so many minority groups and for giving amunition for the persecution and execution of these same groups. If feeding the beast and killing the proponents of freedom is the new definition for peace then go for it!!!!!!!

Then again Bingo is right, the Nobel peace prize is now nothing more than a celebrity/ personality of the year award. may as well include it on the Oscars!!!

 

THE GLOBALIZER

6:02 PM ET

February 3, 2011

I like it.

I'm a huge fan of transparency, and ultimately, freedom to choose political representation is a cornerstone of a truly peaceful world. Anything that speeds the final decline of hegemony and results in a world of mutual respect is one of the great pro-peace moments in human history.

In my eyes, it would actually rehabilitate the Nobel a bit, after its grossly political awards to Obama, Gore, Carter, et al.

Honorable mention to Al Jazeera's fantastic coverage of these recent events (including their mega-reveal of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, in conjunction with WikiLeaks).

 

ZORRO

6:45 PM ET

February 3, 2011

I Tried...

...to come up with a candidate, but it was hard.

Maybe we could have a Nobel War Price instead, awarded to the leader that has done most to promote continued strife and conflict.

 

CANADA

8:26 PM ET

February 3, 2011

Absolutely Not

This would be a mistake not quite up there when they awarded Hitler a peace prize but its up there I agree that Obama probably should not have gotten it even he was embarrassed to receive it Al Gore even though some of his movie was fabricated he did bring the Issue of global warming to the masses and made it something mainstream, Carter definitely deserved it for the Camp David accords Carter certainly wasn't my favorite president but he certainly deserves credit for that. Julian assange is a convicted criminal and clearly is driven by blind Ideology against the U.S its one thing to leak things that the governments of the world are doing and telling their people something else but this is not the Pentagon papers this is some anarchist who doesn't get that the world is not perfect.

 

GRANT

7:14 PM ET

February 4, 2011

I just love how all this talk

I just love how all this talk about Egypt has managed to make people completely forget about a nation where protesters just managed to drive out a dictator. Tunisia ring any bells? Why not look for an activist there to honor?

 

WikiLeaked is FP’s blog dedicated to sorting through and making sense of the more than 250,000 State Department cables acquired by WikiLeaks.

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