The US-based Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts in fighting for systematic change.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee is responsible for selecting the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates. A nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize may be submitted by any persons who are qualified to nominate.
The movement was nominated by Norwegian MP Petter Eide, who said BLM’s work has reached far outside of the US and encouraged other countries to also face up to racism within their own societies.
“I find that one of the key challenges we have seen in America, but also in Europe and Asia, is the kind of increasing conflict based on inequality,” Eide wrote in his nomination letter. “Black Lives Matter has become a very important worldwide movement to fight racial injustice. They have had a tremendous achievement in raising global awareness and consciousness about racial injustice.”
He adds that the movement has “been able to mobilise people from all groups of society, not just African-Americans, not just oppressed people, it has been a broad movement, in a way which has been different from their predecessors.”
His written nomination concludes: “Awarding the peace prize to Black Lives Matter, as the strongest global force against racial injustice, will send a powerful message that peace is founded on equality, solidarity and human rights, and that all countries must respect those basic principles.”
Co-founded in 2013 by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman, the man who shot dead Trayvon Martin (17), the BLM movement grew even more following protests over the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner in 2014, as well as the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in 2020.
The Nobel Peace Prize Committee will meet after February 1 when nominations close, then draw up a short list of candidates. They will then analyse and discuss the candidates before making their final decision at the beginning of October, and the winner will be announced in December.
Last year, the World Food Programme (WFP) won the Nobel Peace Prize for “ its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict.”
Other notable winners include Nelson Mandela and Frederik Willem de Klerk in 1993 “for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa”, Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai in 2014 “for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education”, and Barack H. Obama in 2009 “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”
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