Nobel dynamite: The committee must defend its peace honorees
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All he is saying is give peace a chance. No, not John Lennon -- Fredrik Heffermehl, a Norwegian jurist and critic of the Nobel Peace Prize selection process. It could mean trouble for the committee, which faces a formal investigation into its selections.
"[Alfred] Nobel called it a prize for the champions of peace," Mr. Heffermehl said, "and it's indisputable that he had in mind the peace movement, ... a new global order where nations safely can drop national armaments."
Mr. Heffermehl's beef is that the Nobel Peace Prize committee has broadened the category and awarded the prize for work in environmental, humanitarian and other fields.
In 2007, former Vice President Al Gore and a United Nations panel won it for alerting the world to global warming. In 2009, President Barack Obama won for his efforts on behalf of international diplomacy, although he appears to have been chosen because he wasn't George W. Bush.
It's up to the Stockholm County Administrative Body to judge if the will of Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, is being followed. But the guidelines for the prize are more idealistic than helpful, seeking to honor "the best work for fraternity between nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses."
We favor an expansive reading of the awards criterion. It would be a shame if voices of conscience could not be honored, such as Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo in 2010 and Soviet human rights activist Andrei Sakharov in 1975. They may not have held and promoted peace congresses but they were a witness to humanity. Even work on climate change shouldn't disqualify anybody.
Give peace a chance, for sure. But give reasonableness a chance to recognize kindred humanitarians.
First Published February 7, 2012 12:00 am
