The Nobel Committee should have members from all over the world. And the secrecy should be replaced with transparency. It calls for the Storting's Vice President Akhtar Chaudhry, who is now initiating a reform of the Nobel Peace Prize.
(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Peace Prize. Before Christmas, the debate over the Nobel Committee's award of the Peace Prize to Chinese Liu Xiaobo raged. A number of accusations were made that the committee is too closely linked to the Norwegian authorities.
The Vice President of the Storting, Akhtar Chaudhry (SV), is now taking the initiative for key changes to modernize the work of the Nobel Committee. Today, three weeks before the deadline for nominating candidates for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, Ny Tid can present the Vice President's four concrete proposals to create less controversy around the Nobel Committee's work: International committee members, openness, four-year terms and input from the people.
In a letter to Nobel Committee member Ågot Valle and SV parliamentary leader Bård Vegar Solhjell, the Storting's fourth vice-president writes: the independence of the committee can be better marked. ”
Chaudhry believes the time is ripe for appointing a committee not only made up of former Norwegian parliamentary politicians.
- The committee must reflect the world. People in other countries must also be allowed to express what they believe is the most important peace work. Today, the premises are laid by a bunch of people in safe Europe, and the price is influenced by their thoughts and ideas. It is not certain that someone who lives in Palestine and has to make do with one dollar a day has the same understanding of peace as former Norwegian parliamentary representatives, Chaudhry tells Ny Tid.
He has the support of the director of the Nobel Foundation in Sweden, Michael Sohlman. He points out that there are few requirements for who can sit on the committee – as long as it consists of five people appointed by the Norwegian Storting.
"I see no obstacles for international committee members," Sohlman told Ny Tid on October 22 last year, when he opened up for previous winners such as Nelson Mandela and Shirin Ebadi to sit on the committee.
Chaudhry also advocates that everyone should be able to propose candidates for the award. Today, only a select few groups can submit nominations by February 1 each year, including members of national assemblies and governments, as well as some professors.
- It is important to make the Nobel Peace Prize a people's prize. Ordinary people must be able to propose candidates and influence the selection. Today, only a handful of people have this opportunity, says Chaudhry.
Modernization
Following the fall debate, as well as the 2009 award that went to US President Barack Obama, Chaudhry comes up with several suggestions on how to renew the Peace Prize. Not least, it should become more independent of the Storting, he believes.
- To begin with, both parliamentary representatives, ministers and the prime minister sat on the committee. But it soon became clear that it was difficult to convince the world that the committee was independent of the Norwegian authorities. Therefore, it was decided that ministers could no longer participate. In order to strengthen the committee's independence, it was decided in 1977 that sitting members of the Storting could not be members either. Now is the time to take the next step in the modernization of the Nobel Committee, he says.
Modern communication and travel opportunities make it easier to include members from other countries today.
- Today the chairman of the committee sits in Strasbourg in France and communicates with the other members from there. In principle, the committee could just as easily have had members in Burma or Uganda, Chaudhry states.
New thoughts
The SV politician points out that Alfred Nobel's will does not stand in the way of the committee's composition being changed.
- The committee shall be limited to five members. We can give one member to each of the five continents, says Chaudhry.
Some, like the lawyer Fredrik Heffermehl, have criticized the Nobel Committee for putting too little emphasis on war resistance, disarmament and nonviolence in their allocations. Chaudhry believes a committee of representatives from other continents will use a different concept of peace.
- Today's committee has adopted a very broad understanding of the concept of peace, which I do not mind so far. But this will depend on who sits on the committee. We need people with different experiences, which will certainly affect the committee's understanding of peace, he says.
openness
According to the statutes of the Nobel Foundation, proposals received for candidates, reports and statements about the award must not be published. Only after 50 years is it possible in special cases to give access.
- It's ridiculous! Is not this peace work this committee is doing? If there is one thing that can stand the light of day, it is peace work. This is an old rule that obviously needs to be changed, says Chaudhry.
He will, among other things, have transparency about who is being proposed for the award, what criteria the committee uses and what investigations have been done.
- This is how the committee members want to know that they are looked at in the cards, he points out.
Today, the committee members are elected for six years, while Chaudhry proposes to reduce the period to four years. The purpose is to get more frequent replacements. But he emphasizes that there is nothing wrong with the competence of the sitting members.
- They have done an excellent job. But I think the time has come to have the world represented on the committee. We must not imagine that we in Norway or Europe represent the whole globe. I think we need to get a little down.
Chaudhry will now write a letter to the Norwegian Nobel Institute, asking the institute to evaluate his proposals.
- First we need a discussion about this. Since I myself am in the presidency, I will spend my time and energy raising the debate. The Nobel Institute should itself set up a committee that looks more closely at how the committee's work and composition can be renewed, he says.
- The proposal comes from me as a member of the presidency, and the party stands behind, he says.
Ultimately, only one body can change the practice of appointing only former parliamentary representatives to the Nobel Committee. It is the Storting itself.
