Suggest a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize
Dear Friends,
In 1947, the American Friends Service Committee and Friends Service Council in Britain accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of all Quakers. As a laureate, AFSC is privileged to submit an annual nomination to the Oslo Committee. For 2009, AFSC nominated peace-scholar/activist Gene Sharp of Boston, Massachusetts for his lifelong work in documenting, analyzing, and disseminating worldwide use of nonviolent action to resist oppression. (See the attached press release for more information about Gene's work.)
The Nobel Peace Prize Nominating Committee of AFSC takes its opportunity to nominate a candidate very seriously and canvasses widely among Quakers and others for candidates worthy of this prestigious award. We would like to invite you to participate in our quest for nominees for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.
To help you in discerning a candidate for the committee to consider, note that the person/organization you nominate must be alive/still active, and not a previous recipient of the prize. It is also our practice not to put forward the names of Friends or programs initiated by Friends, in order not to appear self-serving.
The Nobel Criteria
Alfred Nobel’s will establishing the Peace Prize specified that the prize should go “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.” Fairly early in its history, the Norwegian Nobel Committee felt clear to award the Peace Prize to organizations as well as individuals. More recently, it has extended these criteria to include contribution to the advancement of human rights.
Criteria of the AFSC Nobel Peace Prize Nominating Committee:
The candidate’s commitment to nonviolent methods.
The quality of the candidate as a person and of her/his sustained contribution to peace.
The candidate’s work on issues of peace, justice, human dignity, and the integrity of the environment.
The candidate’s possession of a world view and/or global impact as opposed to a parochial concern.
We also consider:
Giving attention to candidates from all parts of the world.
Noting crisis areas and considering candidates related to them only as a Nobel Prize may, by its timeliness and visibility, offer valuable support to a solution to the crisis.
The relevance of a candidates work to the work of AFSC or other Quaker experience.
Recent AFSC nominees include the Peace Brigades International, the Community of Sant’Egidio, Women in Black, Zackie Achmat and the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa, Nihon Hidankyo in Japan, Ghassan Andoni and Jeff Halper in the West Bank and Israel, the Colombian peace communities of San José de Apartadó and the Asociación de Cabildos Indígenas del Norte del Cauca, Aminatou Haidar, a non-violent activist for the rights of the Sahrawi people in the Western Sahara, and for 2009 Gene Sharp, a lifelong scholar and promoter of nonviolent action.
How to nominate a candidate for consideration:
For timely review and preparation of a recommendation to the AFSC Board in November, nominations should be received by May 15. Please send the name of your candidate along with biographical information, a description of the candidate’s contribution to peace, references to recommended published material by or about the candidate, and a contact person for further information if the committee needs it to the following address:
Nobel Peace Prize Nominating Committee
American Friends Service Committee
1501 Cherry St.
Philadelphia, PA 19102
e-mail: SJackson@afsc.org
Important Reminders:
The deliberations of the Committee are confidential, and we ask that nominators hold confidential the names of those they submit to the committee.
If you have nominated someone in the past, there is no need to renominate the person; the Committee maintains an active file of possible nominees from year to year and early in each year reviews names from previous years held over for further consideration.
Please do not submit volumes of data in support of your candidate. References to publications and websites is sufficient.
We appreciate the enthusiasm with which names are put forward, but mounting a lobbying campaign on behalf of a candidate weighs on the staff of AFSC and does not improve the likelihood that the candidate will be selected.
What will happen to your nomination?
Your nomination will be acknowledged by AFSC staff and forwarded to the clerk of the Committee. The nomination and supporting information will be placed on the Peace Prize website, a website accessible only to the committee members, who use it to receive, exchange, and review information. It will be discussed at the next telephone conference of the Committee, and taken forward as appropriate. All nominations receive prayerful consideration. The Committee meets face-to-face in October every year to make its final determination about a nomination, which is presented to the AFSC Board for approval in early November. The Executive Secretary of AFSC sends a letter with supporting documentation to the Nobel Committee in Oslo. Once our nomination has been received in Oslo, we will notify all who have sent us candidates of the Quaker nominee for the year.
Thank you for your participation in this important process.
In 1947, the American Friends Service Committee and Friends Service Council in Britain accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of all Quakers. As a laureate, AFSC is privileged to submit an annual nomination to the Oslo Committee. For 2009, AFSC nominated peace-scholar/activist Gene Sharp of Boston, Massachusetts for his lifelong work in documenting, analyzing, and disseminating worldwide use of nonviolent action to resist oppression. (See the attached press release for more information about Gene's work.)
The Nobel Peace Prize Nominating Committee of AFSC takes its opportunity to nominate a candidate very seriously and canvasses widely among Quakers and others for candidates worthy of this prestigious award. We would like to invite you to participate in our quest for nominees for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.
To help you in discerning a candidate for the committee to consider, note that the person/organization you nominate must be alive/still active, and not a previous recipient of the prize. It is also our practice not to put forward the names of Friends or programs initiated by Friends, in order not to appear self-serving.
The Nobel Criteria
Alfred Nobel’s will establishing the Peace Prize specified that the prize should go “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.” Fairly early in its history, the Norwegian Nobel Committee felt clear to award the Peace Prize to organizations as well as individuals. More recently, it has extended these criteria to include contribution to the advancement of human rights.
Criteria of the AFSC Nobel Peace Prize Nominating Committee:
The candidate’s commitment to nonviolent methods.
The quality of the candidate as a person and of her/his sustained contribution to peace.
The candidate’s work on issues of peace, justice, human dignity, and the integrity of the environment.
The candidate’s possession of a world view and/or global impact as opposed to a parochial concern.
We also consider:
Giving attention to candidates from all parts of the world.
Noting crisis areas and considering candidates related to them only as a Nobel Prize may, by its timeliness and visibility, offer valuable support to a solution to the crisis.
The relevance of a candidates work to the work of AFSC or other Quaker experience.
Recent AFSC nominees include the Peace Brigades International, the Community of Sant’Egidio, Women in Black, Zackie Achmat and the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa, Nihon Hidankyo in Japan, Ghassan Andoni and Jeff Halper in the West Bank and Israel, the Colombian peace communities of San José de Apartadó and the Asociación de Cabildos Indígenas del Norte del Cauca, Aminatou Haidar, a non-violent activist for the rights of the Sahrawi people in the Western Sahara, and for 2009 Gene Sharp, a lifelong scholar and promoter of nonviolent action.
How to nominate a candidate for consideration:
For timely review and preparation of a recommendation to the AFSC Board in November, nominations should be received by May 15. Please send the name of your candidate along with biographical information, a description of the candidate’s contribution to peace, references to recommended published material by or about the candidate, and a contact person for further information if the committee needs it to the following address:
Nobel Peace Prize Nominating Committee
American Friends Service Committee
1501 Cherry St.
Philadelphia, PA 19102
e-mail: SJackson@afsc.org
Important Reminders:
The deliberations of the Committee are confidential, and we ask that nominators hold confidential the names of those they submit to the committee.
If you have nominated someone in the past, there is no need to renominate the person; the Committee maintains an active file of possible nominees from year to year and early in each year reviews names from previous years held over for further consideration.
Please do not submit volumes of data in support of your candidate. References to publications and websites is sufficient.
We appreciate the enthusiasm with which names are put forward, but mounting a lobbying campaign on behalf of a candidate weighs on the staff of AFSC and does not improve the likelihood that the candidate will be selected.
What will happen to your nomination?
Your nomination will be acknowledged by AFSC staff and forwarded to the clerk of the Committee. The nomination and supporting information will be placed on the Peace Prize website, a website accessible only to the committee members, who use it to receive, exchange, and review information. It will be discussed at the next telephone conference of the Committee, and taken forward as appropriate. All nominations receive prayerful consideration. The Committee meets face-to-face in October every year to make its final determination about a nomination, which is presented to the AFSC Board for approval in early November. The Executive Secretary of AFSC sends a letter with supporting documentation to the Nobel Committee in Oslo. Once our nomination has been received in Oslo, we will notify all who have sent us candidates of the Quaker nominee for the year.
Thank you for your participation in this important process.
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| Gene Sharp Press Release.doc | 28.5 KB |
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