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{{Short description|Committee that awards the Nobel Peace Prize}}
{{Infobox organization
| name                     = Norwegian Nobel Committee
| native_name              = Den norske Nobelkomité
| native_name_lang         = no
| logo                     = 
| size                     = 
| motto                    = 
| formation                = 
| headquarters             = [[Oslo]], [[Norway]]
| leader_title             = 
| leader_name              = 
| leader_title2            = 
| leader_name2             = 
| membership               = 5 members
| website                  = {{url|https://nobelpeaceprize.org}}
}}
[[File:Logo of the Nobel Peace Prize.jpg|thumb|The Nobel Peace Prize]]
The '''Norwegian Nobel Committee''' ({{langx|no|Den norske Nobelkomité}}) selects the recipients of the [[Nobel Peace Prize]] each year on behalf of Swedish industrialist [[Alfred Nobel]]'s [[Estate (law)|estate]], based on instructions of Nobel's [[Will (law)|will]].

Five members are appointed by the [[Norwegian Parliament]]. In his will, [[Alfred Nobel]] tasked the parliament of Norway with selecting the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize. At the time, Norway and [[Sweden]] were in [[Union between Sweden and Norway|a loose personal union]]. Despite its members being appointed by Parliament, the committee is a private body tasked with awarding a private prize. In recent decades, most committee members were retired politicians.

The committee is assisted by its secretariat, [[Norwegian Nobel Institute]]. The committee holds their meetings in the institute's building, where the winner is also announced. Since 1990, however, the award ceremony takes place in [[Oslo City Hall]].

==History==
{{further|Alfred Nobel}}

[[Alfred Nobel]] died in December 1896. In January 1897 the contents of his [[Will (law)|will]] were unveiled. It was written as early as in 1895.<ref>Heffermehl, 2008: pp. 15–17</ref> He declared that a [[Nobel 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",<ref name=excerpt>{{cite web|url=http://nobelprize.org/alfred_nobel/will/short_testamente.html|access-date=14 June 2009|title=Excerpt from the Will of Alfred Nobel|publisher=[[Nobel Foundation]]}}</ref> and that some of Nobel's money was to be donated to this prize. The [[Nobel Foundation]] manages the assets.<ref name=snl>{{cite encyclopedia|year=2007|title=Nobelprisen|encyclopedia=[[Store norske leksikon]]|first=Jon Gunnar|last=Arntzen|editor=Henriksen, Petter|publisher=Kunnskapsforlaget|location=Oslo|url=http://www.snl.no/Nobelprisen|language=no|access-date=14 June 2009}}</ref> The other [[Nobel Prize]]s were to be awarded by Swedish bodies ([[Swedish Academy]], [[Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]], [[Karolinska Institute|Karolinska Institutet]]) that already existed, whereas the responsibility for the Peace Prize was given to the [[Storting|Norwegian Parliament]],<ref>Heffermehl, 2008: p. 39</ref> specifically "a committee of five persons to be elected" by it.<ref name=excerpt/> A new body had to be created&mdash;the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

Jurist [[Fredrik Heffermehl]] has noted that a legislative body could not necessarily be expected to handle a judicial task like managing a legal will. The task of a parliament is to create and change laws whereas a will can not be changed unless the premises are clearly outdated. However, this question was not debated in depth, out of contemporary fear that the donated money might be lost in legal battles if the body was not created soon.<ref name=p72>Heffermehl, 2008: p. 72</ref> On 26 April 1897 the Norwegian Parliament accepted the assignment and on 5 August the same year it formalized the process of election and service time for committee members.<ref name=earlyhist>Heffermehl, 2008: pp. 53–54</ref> The first Peace Prize was awarded in 1901 to [[Henri Dunant]] and [[Frédéric Passy]].<ref name=snl/> In the beginning, the committee was filled with active parliamentarians and the annual reports were discussed in parliamentary sessions. These ties to the Norwegian Parliament were later weakened so that the  committee became more independent. Accordingly, the name was changed from the Norwegian Nobel Committee to the Nobel Committee of the Norwegian Parliament ({{langx|no|Det norske Stortings Nobelkomité}}) in 1901, but changed back in 1977.<ref name=earlyhist/> Now, active parliamentarians cannot sit on the committee, unless they have explicitly stated their intent to step down shortly.<ref name=nrk>{{cite news|url=http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/nobels_fredspris/1.6338968|title=Bare nordmenn i Nobelkomiteen|last=Helljesen|first=Geir|author-link=Geir Helljesen|publisher=Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation|language=no|access-date=14 June 2009}}</ref>

Nonetheless, the committee is still composed mainly of politicians. A 1903 proposition to elect a law scholar ([[Ebbe Hertzberg]]) was rejected.<ref name=p72/> In late 1948, the election system was changed to make the committee more proportional with parliamentary representation of [[List of political parties in Norway|Norwegian political parties]]. The Norwegian Labour Party, which controlled a simple majority of seats in the Norwegian Parliament orchestrated this change.<ref>Heffermehl, 2008: pp. 84–85</ref> This practice has been cemented, but sharply criticized.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.nytid.no/perspektiver/artikler/20081010/fredspriskuppet/|title=Fredspriskuppet|last=Dahl|first=Miriam Stackpole|date=10 October 2008|work=Ny Tid|language=no|access-date=12 December 2008|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081210185552/http://www.nytid.no/perspektiver/artikler/20081010/fredspriskuppet/|archive-date=10 December 2008}}</ref> There have been propositions about including non-Norwegian members in the committee, but this has never happened.<ref name=nrk/>

The Norwegian Nobel Committee is assisted by the [[Norwegian Nobel Institute]], established in 1904.<ref name=snl/> The committee might receive well more than a hundred nominations and asks the Nobel Institute in February every year to research about twenty candidates.<ref>Heffermehl, 2008: pp. 50–51</ref> The director of the Nobel Institute also serves as secretary to the Norwegian Nobel Committee; currently this position belongs to Olav Njølstad.

==List of Chairpersons==
;List of chairpersons<ref name=chairs>Heffermehl, 2008: pp. 60–64</ref>

{{col-begin}}
{{col-2}}
*1900–1901: [[Bernhard Getz]]
*1901–1922: [[Jørgen Løvland]]
*1922–1922: [[Hans Jacob Horst]]
*1922–1941: [[Fredrik Stang]]
*1941–1943: [[Gunnar Jahn]]
*1944–1945: ''see below''
*1945–1945: [[C. J. Hambro|Carl Joachim Hambro]]
*1945–1966: [[Gunnar Jahn]]
*1967–1967: [[Nils Langhelle]]
*1967–1967: [[Bernt Ingvaldsen]]

{{col-2}}
[[Image:Nobelinstituttet 20080913-01.jpg|thumb|Inside of Norwegian Nobel Institute]]
*1968–1978: [[Aase Lionæs]]
*1979–1981: [[John Sanness]]
*1982–1989: [[Egil Aarvik]]
*1990–1990: [[Gidske Anderson]]
*1991–1999: [[Francis Sejersted]]
*2000–2002: [[Gunnar Berge]]
*2003–2008: [[Ole Danbolt Mjøs]]
*2009–2015: [[Thorbjørn Jagland]]
*2015–2017: [[Kaci Kullmann Five]]
*2017–2023: [[Berit Reiss-Andersen]]
*2024–present: [[Jørgen Watne Frydnes]]
{{col-end}}
In January 1944 an attempt by the [[Vidkun Quisling|Quisling]] government to take over the functions of the Nobel Committee  led to the resignation of Jahn and other committee members. The Swedish [[consulate-general]] in Oslo formally took over the management of the Foundation's Oslo property on behalf of the Nobel Foundation.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/articles/committee/nnclist/index.html|title=The Norwegian Nobel Committee 1901-2008|access-date=1 February 2012|publisher=Nobelprize.org}}</ref>

==Members==
{{main|List of members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee}}
The members {{as of|2021|lc=on}} are:<ref>{{cite web |title=Valg av medlemmer til Nobelkomiteen |date=18 January 2021 |url=https://www.stortinget.no/no/Stortinget-og-demokratiet/Valg-og-konstituering/Valgkomiteen/Valg-av-medlemmer-til-Nobelkomiteen/ |publisher=[[Stortinget]] |access-date=1 February 2021}}</ref>

*[[Berit Reiss-Andersen]] (chair, born 1954), [[advocate]] (barrister) and president of the [[Norwegian Bar Association]], former [[State Secretary (Norway)|state secretary]] for the [[Minister of Justice and the Police (Norway)|Minister of Justice and the Police]] (representing the [[Norwegian Labour Party|Labour Party]]). Member of the Norwegian Nobel Committee since 2012, reappointed for the period 2018–2023.
*[[Anne Enger]] (born 1949), former Leader of the [[Centre Party (Norway)|Centre Party]] and [[Minister of Culture and Church Affairs|Minister of Culture]]. Appointed for the period 2018–2020, and reappointed for the period 2021–2026.
*[[Asle Toje]] (born 1974), foreign policy scholar. Appointed for the period 2018–2023.
*[[Kristin Clemet]], former [[Conservative Party (Norway)|Conservative Party]] cabinet member who previously represented Oslo in Norwegian Parliament. Appointed for the period 2021–2026.
*[[Jørgen Watne Frydnes]], appointed for the period 2021–2026.

==Secretariat==
[[Image:Norske nobelinstiutt 1.jpg|thumb|The [[Norwegian Nobel Institute]], where the committee holds its meetings]]
The committee is assisted by the [[Norwegian Nobel Institute]], its secretariat. The leader of the institute holds the title secretary. The secretary is not a member of the committee, but is an employee of the Norwegian Nobel Institute.

;List of secretaries<ref name=chairs/>
*1901–1909: [[Christian Lous Lange]]
*1910–1945: [[Ragnvald Moe]]
*1946–1973: [[August Schou]]
*1974–1977: [[Tim Greve]]
*1978–1989: [[Jakob Sverdrup (historian)|Jakob Sverdrup]]
*1990–2015: [[Geir Lundestad]]
*2015–present: [[Olav Njølstad]]

==References==
;Notes
{{Reflist}}

;Bibliography
*{{cite book|last=Heffermehl|first=Fredrik|author-link=Fredrik Heffermehl|title=Nobels vilje|publisher=Vidarforlaget|location=Oslo|year=2008|isbn=978-82-7990-074-0|language=no}}
*Heffermehl, Fredrik (2010). ''The Nobel Peace Prize. What Nobel really wanted'''. Sta Barbara: Praeger. {{ISBN|978-0-313-38744-9}}.

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
*[http://nobelpeaceprize.org/ Norwegian Nobel Committee]&nbsp;– official site
*[http://www.nobelprize.org Nobel Prize]&nbsp;– official site

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