The Nobel Peace Prize

The founder of the prizes

In the 1890s, Swedish Alfred Nobel donated his large fortune to the Nobel Prizes. He dedicated the award to;

 “the person who shall have done the most or best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”

Example: The united nations and its secretary general Kofi Annan were chosen for their work for a better organised and more peaceful world.

The first peace prize

Henry dunant, founder of the red cross, shared the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901 with Frédéric Passy, a leading international pacifist of the time.

In addition to humanitarian efforts and peace movements, the Nobel Peace prize, has been awarded for work in a wide range of fields including advocacy of human rights, mediation of international conflicts, and arms control.

Number of prizes

The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to 120 Laureates-97 times to individuals and 23 times to organisations.


The gender allocation

Of the 97 individuals awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, 12 are women.

Organisations can win the award

The work of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been honoured the most-three times, other organisations that have won the award include Amnesty International and International Panel on Climate Change.