Questions Nobel Committee must face squarely
The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which has always been controversial for its Peace Prize winners, has a history of 109 years. In recent years, Norwegian intellectual circles have frequently questioned whether the composition of the Nobel Committee is reasonable, whether the committee faithfully respects Alfred Nobel's will and whether the committee is actually independent.
Question one: Was it Alfred Nobel's true intention to allocate memberships based on political parties?
The Norwegian Nobel Committee consists of five Norwegians who are elected and appointed by the Norwegian Parliament. Currently, they are all senior politicians in Norway. Thorbjørn Jagland, the chairman of the committee, is from the Labor Party. Kaci Kullmann Five, deputy chairwoman, was the chairwoman of the Conservative Party. Sissel Marie Rønbeck is from Labour Party; Ågot Valle is from Socialist Left Party; and Inger-Marie Ytterhorn is a senior counselor of the Progress Party. They all come from the major parties that have the most seats in the Norwegian Parliament.
Kristian Berg Harpviken, the director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, has questioned the allocation of memberships based on political parties. According to Harpviken, Nobel's will asked the Norwegian Parliament to elect five Norwegians as committee members in charge of nominating and awarding Peace Prize laureates, and the memberships should not be allocated to senior politicians as a "bonus" based on party powers.
Question two: Does the committee faithfully respect Nobel's will?
Alfred Nobel said in his will that after his death, most of his property would be used to fund the Nobel Prizes, including three prizes awarded for eminence in sciences and one in literature and one for peace. Prize in economics was later established. Prizes in sciences and literature are announced in Stockholm, Sweden. And the Peace Prize is awarded by the Norwegian Nobel Committee and announced in Oslo, Norway.
According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize should be awarded to the person who "shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses."
The awarding of Nobel Prize has become overtly deviated from the last words of its founder, said Fredrik Heffermehl, a Norwegian lawyer who has conducted a careful study of Alfred Nobel's testament and a thorough legal evaluation of the Nobel Peace Prizes given during the past 109 years.
Heffermehl said Nobel's testament was integrity aiming to change the situation of increasing military forces and peace threat. However, the committee separates the three standards stipulated by Nobel and makes willful explanations. The committee, according to its political needs, expands the nomination of the Peace Prize to climate, poverty and human rights, a divergence from Nobel's intention to encourage reducing and abolishing military forces.
On October 8, the committee granted the 2010 Nobel Peace Price to Liu Xiaobo. Heffermehl reiterated his research results during interviews and said it was inappropriate to award the prize to Liu who was not a peace fighter according to Nobel's will.
Question three: is it an independent committee?
The Nobel Committee has said all along that it is entirely independent of the Norwegian government and parliament. The Committee would make their decisions by itself in spite of the political pressure.
Before the results announcement of this year's Nobel Peace Prize, the committee claimed they hoped China should not overreact to the result if the Chinese "dissident" was awarded.
However, the committee's independence has always been questioned. "
No matter the committee members belong to whichever parties, all of them believe in military strength, loyalty to NATO, and subservience to the United States. They were long active in Norway politics, therefore there are no possibilities the Nobel Committee can be free to decide and entirely independent of political pressure," Heffermehl said. "That is why the Nobel Committee has followed the most powerful force in world affairs-the United States since the Cold War."
Nobel Committee chairman Thorbjørn Jagland has served as the Norway Foreign Minister, Norway's Prime Minister and President of Norway Parliament, also Secretary General of the Council of Europe. Last year Jagland announced the Peace Prize winner, U.S. President Barack Obama, which aroused criticism. The chairman of Norwegian Progress Party, Siv Jensen, said that as the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Jagland should resign as the Nobel Committee chairman, because his duel identity will damage the independence of Nobel Committee.
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