DN Debate. The nobel foundation must act against the misinterpretation of the peace prize

The nobel Prize surrounded by the largest number of scandals through the years is without a doubt the peace prize, even if the arguments to the Swedish Academy managed to get Lars Heikensten and the nobel Foundation’s board of directors to intervene and determine that no literature prize shall be awarded in 2018.

the Culmination of fredsprisets maturity was reached on Tuesday 27 november when the Norwegian storting (parliament) addressed new rules for the Norwegian prize awarding of the nobel Committee, and in doing so rejected a proposal of candidates to the committee should have ”knowledge of, and support peace-building and disarmament, as defined by Alfred Nobel.

and the heart of a criticism that has been directed against the management of the price, the norwegians have gradually applied their own interpretation of what the Nobel price for ”fredsförfäktare” shall be given to.

It is of course not allowed to ”interpret” a will according to its head, it knows where and who knows the rules of inheritance and wills – it is the testator will, at the time when the testament was written to apply, nothing else. It is simply because you are writing the will.

the Change of the price has been in small steps, of which the committee has increasingly come to be a representative of the Norwegian foreign policy. Over a period of time was the next president, and former prime minister Torbjorn Jagland also the chairman of the committee.

The gradual change of this price associated with the two decisions of the storting at the end of the 1940s: the Norwegian membership in the militäralliansen Nato and that the seats in the prize-awarding committee shall be allocated proportionally between parties.

The Norwegian nato membership has strong support in the Storting, and the voices that speak for a release of tension and question the role of Nato in the world’s various conflicts are increasingly difficult to make themselves heard in our western neighbouring country. Norway is trying to take a role as ”best in class”, participating in all Nato ”out of area”-operations, buy american fighter planes, arranges provocative military exercises like this autumn’s Trident Juncture, and is on track to deliver the us to the wish that nato member countries will provide two percent of its GDP to the military.

To the storting got this role, when the other four prizes are awarded by Swedish institutions, has to do with the fact that the Norwegian parliament at this time was the leader in Europe in supporting the ideas, and gave substantial financial support through the permanent International peace bureau and the Interparliamentary union, which also received the financial support of Alfred Nobel, in his last years of life.

the Change of the price has been in small steps, of which the committee has increasingly come to be a representative of the Norwegian foreign policy. Over a period of time was the next president, and former prime minister Torbjorn Jagland also the chairman of the committee. Recently there was an election to the nobel Committee had the Norwegian progress party ”right” to a place according to the electoral practice that is followed. The party’s candidate was the Norwegian policy counterpart to Jimmy Åkesson, the infamous Carl In the Pasture.

It created some perplexities in the parliament, it can be understood. In the end, came up to Carl In the Pasture could not be selected because he was a deputy member of the storting. To choose a person with xenophobic attitudes, and in general a power – and the militaristic past considered the storting’t be a problem…

The worst övertrampet was the prize to Kissinger in 1973, a scandal that the Norwegian prize committee exacerbated further when you invited Kissinger as the guest of honour at the fredsprisfirandet year 2016. The price to the EU is also a dull scandal, which the UNION-management celebrated the week after the prize ceremony 2014 by increasing the union’s military ambitions and give EU money to strengthen the national arms industry. The price also has gone to many worthwhile causes, in and of itself worthy of that honour.

But the prize that Alfred Nobel called ”the price to fredsförfäktare”, according to the testament go to the ”under the stray of the year … worked the most and best for the peoples of the förbrödrande and the abolition or reduction of standing armies and the formation and spreading of peace congresses”. The Norwegian nobel Committee can call a ”dynamic interpretation” is not based on the bible wording, but simply a misinterpretation.

27 november, it went a step further on its way to make the peace prize to the next property, with the free power of interpretation . The proposal that members of the nobel Committee would have knowledge of the nedrustningsarbete and the vision of peace that Alfred Nobel wanted to support when he wrote his will, which was supported only by two of the storting’s members. Seventeen juristprofessorer at the Norwegian university who should know a lot about wills and inheritance law, had made a public request in the matter, but it was ignored.

99 per cent of the storting’s members seem not to have understood its role: in this case, the acting parliament not as a parliament but as a subordinate body to a Swedish private foundation, which is under Swedish law and supervision of the County administrative board in Stockholm. The county did a review of the fredsprishandläggningen 2012, and pointed out then in an opinion that the Nobel foundation has the responsibility to ensure that the nobel prizes follow the testator’s will. The foundation’s board of directors was ordered to find out and instruct each of the five prisgivande the committees on the testament purposes, and check that it is complied with.

• Therefore, I call on the County administrative board of Stockholm to acquire the knowledge of what has just taken place in the Norwegian parliament (storting), and act accordingly.

• And Lars Heikensten and the nobel Foundation’s board of directors in Stockholm it is no longer acceptable to turn a deaf ear to that you have done so far. With its duty to safeguard the Nobel legacy, the foundation must find other solutions for how the peace prize is to be appointed, preferably a completely new committee. Just like they have done with the nobel prize in literature, where the foundation has ordered that five people outside the Swedish Academy shall participate in the work of selecting the laureate in literature in the future.