On the day of the Nobel Peace Prize Award Ceremony at Oslo City Hall, Alfred Nobel decided to give one fifth of his fortune for a prize to promote disarmament and resolution of all conflicts through negotiations and legal means, never through violence.
It should go to “champions of peace” – to reducing or abolishing standing armies, promoting peace congresses and creating fraternity between nations…
The Nobel Committee in Oslo has, over the years, awarded this prize to several people whose activities are in clear violation of those goals, even with a broader, updated interpretation.
Can such a prize, with a so clearly stated goal, be changed to serve the opposite idea and be given again and again to recipients who promote arms races and believe in militarism and war?
This question will soon be answered, after Mairead Maguire, Jan Oberg, David Swanson, and Lay Down Your Arms took the case to the Stockholm District Court on Friday 4th of December 2015.
The specific case to be tested is the 2012 award to the European Union.
Norwegian lawyer Fredrik Heffermehl and Jan Oberg took the initiative in 2007 to reclaim the Prize to its original purposes.
Since then Fredrik Heffermehl has done research on its history and decision-making processes. One of the main results is his internationally acclaimed 2010 book The Nobel Peace Prize: What Nobel Really Wanted, 239 pages.
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