Nobel Peace Prize nominations close with Ukraine and Gaza on agenda

The doors close Wednesday on nominations for the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize, with peace activists connected to the wars in Gaza and Ukraine among the known entries.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee keeps the nominations secret, but those with nomination rights sometimes make their picks public.

Attempts to find an end the war in Gaza have been a theme for some of the announced nominations.

Academics at the Free University Amsterdam said they have nominated the Middle East-based organizations EcoPeace, Women Wage Peace and Women of the Sun for peace efforts between Israelis and Palestinians.

"They are bringing communities together to build peace in the Middle East with a special focus on the role of women and climate justice," the university's Peace and Conflict Studies department wrote.

Norwegian lawmaker Ingvild Wetrhus Thorsvik told newspaper VG that she had nominated Palestinian video journalist Motaz Azaiza for documenting conditions in Gaza.

The prestigious prize typically attracts more than 300 entries from academics connected with peace studies, lawmakers of national parliaments, former winners and others with nomination rights.

The International Peace Bureau organization, which won the prize in 1910, said it had nominated The Russian Movement of Conscientious Objectors and The Ukrainian Pacifist Movement for their commitment to the protection of conscientious objectors to violence, particularly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The Belarusian organization Our House, was also nominated for the same reason.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee whittles down the list of candidates in a series of meetings before announcing the winner in October. The wide base of individuals and organizations qualified to nominate candidates means the longlist can contain some eccentric choices: Both Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler have previously had their names put in the hat.

Imprisoned Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi won the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize for campaigning for women's rights and democracy in her country. Her teenage children accepted the award on her behalf.

The peace prize and the other Nobel Prizes are handed out on Dec. 10, the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel's death in 1896.