Ukraine, Climate? Nobel Peace Prize Unveiled Under Cloud Of War

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Ukraine, climate? Nobel Peace Prize unveiled under cloud of war

Oslo, Oct 7 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 7th Oct, 2022 ) :The Nobel Peace Prize will be unveiled Friday, with experts speculating it could go to critics of Vladimir Putin, climate activists or even no prize at all amid the war in Ukraine.

The climax of the Nobel season, the Peace Prize laureate will be announced at 11:00 am (0900 GMT) in Oslo, against the backdrop of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine which has plunged Europe into one of its worst crises since World War II.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee keeps the list of nominations a closely guarded secret, but it is known to have 343 Names on it, including 251 individuals and 92 organisations.

With Ukraine dominating headlines since the start of the year, some prize experts say it is doubtful the committee can ignore it.

"It is likely we will see a prize that in one way or another will point in the direction of Ukraine," the director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, Henrik Urdal, told Norwegian broadcaster NRK just hours before the announcement.

In such case, he said possible laureates could be Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, thorns in the side of the Kremlin and one of its few allies in the war, Belarus strongman Alexander Lukashenko.

Or it could go to the International Court of Justice based in The Hague, which in March ordered the immediate end of the Russian offensive, or the UN High Commission for Refugees, as millions of people have been displaced by the conflict.

Other Nobel observers -- including Oda Andersen Nyborg, head of the Norwegian Peace Council -- have meanwhile suggested the prize could this year go to climate campaigners, as the planet's alarm bells ring.

Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg has been seen as a potential Nobel laureate for several years despite her young age, and could take home the prize with her movement "Fridays for Future", British naturalist David Attenborough or other environmentalists.