Nominate Francesca Albanese for Nobel Peace Prize https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/stand_with_francesca_loc/?copy&utm_source=copy&utm_medium=social_share&utm_campaign=54807&share_location=post_action

Judging by the response I’ve been getting on both Bluesky and X when posting this petition I thought it worthwhile to write something about the Nobel Peace Prize. The next two paragraphs are from an official source.

Each year, the Norwegian Nobel Committee specifically invites qualified people to submit nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize. 338 individuals and organizations have been nominated for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for 2025, a significant increase from 2024. The Nobel Committee does not confirm the names of nominees, neither to the media nor to the candidates themselves. Where names of candidates appear in the media it is either sheer speculation or because individuals themselves report that they have nominated specific candidates.

The nomination deadline for the Nobel Peace Prize for 2025 was on 31 January. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate(s) of 2025 will be announced on Friday 10 October, with the award ceremony taking place on 10 December in Oslo, Norway.

The statutes of the Nobel Foundation do not allow information about nominations, considerations, or investigations relating to awarding the prize to be made public for at least 50 years after a prize has been awarded. Over time, many individuals have become known as “Nobel Peace Prize Nominees”, but this designation has no official standing, and means only that one of the thousands of eligible nominators suggested the person’s name for consideration. Indeed, in 1939, Adolf Hitler received a satirical nomination from a member of the Swedish parliament, mocking the (serious but unsuccessful) nomination of Neville Chamberlain.

Wikipedia

In brief you and I cannot nominate anyone but, by signing the petition, we support the nomination of Francesca Albanese by Irish politician Aodhán Ó Ríordáin “for her work as the UN special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, and her tremendous and courageous work to highlight the destruction of Gaza by Israel.”

To provide some context, I should mention a few other nominees.

Ingrid Fiskaa, a Norwegian politician, has nominated two people to the Prize jointly – one Palestinian and the other American/Israeli. This is not the first time Israelis have shared a Peace Prize with a Palestinian but I doubt if it will ever happen again!

Hind Rajab has been nominated posthumously “To honour every Palestinian child whose life has been stolen by war and genocide and to recognise the relentless horror children in Gaza have endured.”

Some nominations are frankly ludicrous: Donald Trump has complained that it’s worthless as it was awarded to Barack Obama for “being black” but he wants it anyway and has been nominated several times.

Elon Musk has been nominated “for his consistent commitment to the fundamental human right to freedom of expression, and thus to peace” but he has reportedly turned down the nomination stating that he does not wish to receive any prizes.

The most outrageous is the nomination of Daniella Weiss, a notorious Israeli settler in the West Bank, “for her decades-long efforts in strengthening Jewish communities and promoting regional stability.” She was sanctioned by Canada in June 2024 for violence against civilians in the West Bank and by the United Kingdom in May 2025.

Mahatma Gandhi never received the Nobel Peace Prize, although he was nominated five times between 1937 and 1948. In 1948 Gandhi received six letters of nomination and was on the shortlist for the Peace Prize but he was assassinated on 30 January 1948, two days before the closing date for nominations.

Wikipedia

Ibrahim Traoré, nominated by Pope Leo XIV, quietly rejected one the nomination saying simply: “Justice does not need to be rewarded – it just needs to be won.”