Nobel Peace Prize 2025: How is it decided?

STOCKHOLM: The Nobel prizes are set to be announced from this week, starting with the award for medicine or physiology on Monday (Oct 6) and ending with the unveiling of the winners in economics on Oct 13.

The awards, which are also handed out for outstanding achievements in physics, chemistry, literature and peace, come with a prize amount of 11 million Swedish crowns (US$1.2 million) and bestow an instant fame on the recipients that is unthinkable for the vast majority of scientists.

The winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Oct 10.

On Monday, American scientists Mary Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi from Japan won the 2025 prize for medicine or physiology, for their discoveries in peripheral immune tolerance.

WHO WAS ALFRED NOBEL?

The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel, who in his will dictated that the bulk of his estate should be used to fund "prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind".

Nobel is best known as the inventor of dynamite, but also wrote poetry and drama and could speak Russian, French, English and German by the age of 17. The five original prize categories reflect the interests closest to his heart.

Nobel spent much of his career developing weapons technologies and made a fortune from it, but later in life became a close friend of Austrian peace activist Bertha von Suttner.

She went on to become the first woman to win the peace prize in 1905 and many believe it was her influence that made him include an award for that category.

Nobel died in 1896 but it took until 1901, following a legal battle over his will, before the first prizes were awarded.

WHO CAN WIN?

The short answer is: whoever fits the description set out in Nobel's 1895 will. 

It says the prize should go to the person "who has done the most or best to advance fellowship among nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and the establishment and promotion of peace congresses".

The more complicated answer is that the prize "needs to be placed in the current context", according to Kristian Berg Harpviken, the award committee's secretary, who prepares the work for the award body. He participates in the deliberations but does not vote.

"They will look at the world, see what is happening, what are the global trends, what are the main concerns, what are the most promising processes that we see," he told Reuters.

"And processes here can mean anything from a specific peace process to a new type of international agreement that is under development or that has recently been adopted."

WHO CAN NOMINATE?

Thousands of people can propose names: members of governments and parliaments; current heads of state; university professors of history, social sciences, law and philosophy; and former Nobel Peace Prize laureates, among others.

This year, there are 338 nominees. The full list is locked in a vault for 50 years.

WHO IS NOMINATED?

While the full list of nominations is kept secret, nominators are free to disclose them. There is no way of verifying they have done as they have said.

Among the names disclosed this year are the International Criminal Court, NATO, jailed Hong Kong activist Chow Hang-tung and Canadian human rights lawyer Irwin Cotler.

The leaders of Cambodia, Israel and Pakistan have said they nominated US President Donald Trump. Their nominations were made in spring and summer, after the Jan 31 deadline, so they are not valid for the 2025 prize.

COULD TRUMP WIN?

Only if he changes his policies, according to Nobel experts who argue that he is at present dismantling the international world order the award committee cherishes.

Instead, the committee may wish to highlight a humanitarian organisation, journalists, or a United Nations institution, they say. Or they could spring a surprise.

Last year's winner was Japanese atomic bomb survivors group Nihon Hidankyo. The threat of nuclear weapons has been a long-standing focus of the committee.

WHO DECIDES?

The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which consists of five individuals appointed by the Norwegian parliament. Members are often retired politicians, but not always. 

The current committee is led by the head of the Norwegian branch of PEN International, a group defending freedom of expression. Another member is an academic.

HOW DOES THE COMMITTEE DECIDE?

Nominations close on Jan 31. Members of the committee can make their own nominations no later than their first meeting in February.

They discuss all the nominations, then establish a shortlist. Each nominee is then assessed and examined by a group of permanent advisers and other experts.

The committee meets roughly once a month to discuss the nominations. The decision tends to be taken in August or in September, said Harpviken.

The committee seeks to reach a consensus on its selection. If it cannot, the decision is made by majority vote.

The last time a member quit in protest was in 1994, when Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat shared the prize with Israel's Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin.

WHO AWARDS THE NOBEL PRIZES?

Nobel selected the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to award the prizes for chemistry and physics, the Swedish Academy for literature, Sweden's Karolinska Institute medical university for physiology or medicine, and the Norwegian parliament for peace. 

It is not known exactly why Nobel chose Norway to hand out the peace prize, though it could reflect that Norway and Sweden were linked in a political union at the time he penned his will.

In 1968, when Sweden's central bank was celebrating its 300th anniversary, it established the Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel with a donation to the Nobel Foundation. 

The prize is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, according to the same principles as the other prizes.

FAMOUS AND INFAMOUS LAUREATES

Notable Nobel laureates include scientists Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr and Marie Curie, authors Ernest Hemingway and Albert Camus, and inspirational leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr and Mother Teresa.

While most achievements are still celebrated, some awards have not aged well, such as Egas Moniz's 1949 prize in physiology or medicine for the since-discredited practice of lobotomy.

Many peace prizes have also been criticised, including those for Henry Kissinger, Yasser Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres. Failure to give the prize to Mahatma Gandhi before his death in 1948 is also seen by many as a great oversight.

THE FESTIVITIES

The Nobel prizes are presented to the laureates on Dec 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death. 

The peace prize is handed out by the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo, while the other prizes are presented by the Swedish king in Stockholm Concert Hall.

During the evening, some 1,300 guests are treated to a lavish banquet at Stockholm City Hall. The menu, meticulously planned for months by some of Sweden's best chefs and sommeliers, is kept a secret until the food is served by 200 waiters.

The food has a Nordic theme and last year's menu included a starter of goat's cheese filled with lovage, a main course quenelle of chicken, miso-glazed celeriac and cabbage, and dessert of baked apple terrine and brown butter cake, flavoured with spruce shoots.

WHAT DOES THE LAUREATE GET?

A medal, a diploma, 11 million Swedish crowns and immediate global attention.

WHEN WILL THE PEACE PRIZE WINNER BE ANNOUNCED?

The announcement will be made at 9am GMT on Oct 10 at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo by the committee's chair, Joergen Watne Frydnes.

The ceremony will take place at the Oslo City Hall on Dec 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death.