So who are the five members of the Nobel Committee making this year\u2019s crucial decision?<\/p>\n
Who are the five Nobel Peace Prize judges?<\/p>\n
The Nobel Committee was established by the Norwegian Storting (Norway\u2019s Parliament) in 1897 and is tasked with picking the laureates of the Nobel Peace Prize.<\/p>\n
The members of the committee are elected for a period of six years and can be re-elected.<\/p>\n
According to the Nobel Peace Prize\u2019s rules, members of the committee represent the strength of the different political parties in Norway\u2019s Parliament, but cannot be sitting members of the parliament. Once elected, the committee picks its own chairman and deputy chairman, and the director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute serves as the committee\u2019s secretary.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s Nobel Committee members are:<\/p>\n
Jorgen Watne Frydnes<\/p>\n
Frydnes is the chair of the Nobel Committee.<\/p>\n
At 41, he is the youngest-ever chair of the committee. He was appointed in 2021 and will remain a member until 2026.<\/p>\n
Frydnes has spent his career working as a human rights advocate. He has also served as secretary-general of PEN Norway, a group that promotes freedom of expression.<\/p>\n
He has worked with the nongovernment organisation (NGO), Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders, or MSF), and is a member of the human rights NGO, Norwegian Helsinki Committee.<\/p>\n
While Frydnes is officially nonpolitical, he is known to be supportive of Norway\u2019s ruling Labour Party. He managed a memorial to the 69 Labour activist victims of the 2011 Utoeya massacre carried out by a Norwegian right-wing extremist. Frydnes has played an important role in rebuilding the island of Utoeya since then.<\/p>\n
![\"J\u00f8rgen](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2024-12-08T193248Z_2006243277_RC26LBALRATS_RTRMADP_3_NOBEL-PRIZE-PEACE-JAPAN-1760019172.jpg\")
The chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Jorgen Watne Frydnes, waits to welcome the representatives of the Japanese organisation, Nihon Hidankyo, the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize winner, at Oslo airport in Gardermoen, Norway, on December 8, 2024 [Jonas Been Henriksen\/NTB via Reuters]Asle Toje<\/p>\n
Aged 51, Toje is the vice chair of the Nobel Committee. He has been a member since 2018 and was reappointed to the committee for the period of 2024-2029.<\/p>\n
He is considered a conservative and served as research director at the Norwegian Nobel Institute before joining the Nobel Committee. He has also published a book called The European Union as a Small Power: After the Post-Cold War.<\/p>\n
![\"Nobel](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2024-12-09T133848Z_1126027464_RC2OLBA14PT2_RTRMADP_3_NOBEL-PRIZE-PEACE-1760021718.jpg\")
Representatives of last year\u2019s winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Toshiyuki Mimaki, Terumi Tanaka and Shigemitsu Tanaka, sit before the Norwegian Nobel Committee, from left, Gry Larsen, Anne Enger, chair Jorgen Watne Frydnes, Kristin Clemet and Asle Toje, during the signing of the Nobel Committee\u2019s guest book at the Nobel Institute in Oslo, Norway, on December 9, 2024 [Javad Parsa\/NTB via Reuters]Anne Enger<\/p>\n
Enger, 75, has been a member of the committee since 2018 and has also been reappointed for the period from 2021 to 2026.<\/p>\n
She studied nursing and began her career teaching the subject. She later switched to politics, supporting Norway\u2019s Centre Party.<\/p>\n
Enger served as chief of the Ministry of Culture and deputy to the prime minister of Norway between 1997 and 1999, acting prime minister in 1998 and became acting chief of the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy briefly in 1999. She has been county governor of the region of Ostfold\u00a0since 2004.<\/p>\n
Enger has also headed the secretariat of the People\u2019s Movement against Free Abortion in Norway.<\/p>\n
Kristin Clemet<\/p>\n
Clemet, 68, was appointed to the committee in 2021 and will be a member till 2026.<\/p>\n
She is a Norwegian politician for Hoyre, Norway\u2019s Conservative Party.<\/p>\n
An economist by profession, she was twice an adviser to Norway\u2019s past prime minister, Kare Willoch of the Conservative Party, and has served as minister of education between 2001 and 2005.<\/p>\n
Gry Larsen<\/p>\n
Larsen, 49, is a former Labour state secretary in the Foreign Ministry and head of Norwegian humanitarian organisation CARE Norway, which advocates for global women\u2019s rights. She has previously criticised Trump\u2019s cuts to foreign aid spending.<\/p>\n
She was appointed to the committee for the period of 2024-2029.<\/p>\n
How have they voted in the past?<\/p>\n
According to the rules of the Nobel Peace Prize, the Nobel Committee receives nominations from members of governments around the world, or the International Court of Justice in The Hague and university professors of of history, social sciences, law, philosophy, theology and religion, among others, <\/strong>by the end of January but are not permitted to reveal the names of the nominees until a winner is announced. In March, the committee prepares a short-list of candidates and announces the winner in October.<\/p>\n The selection process takes place in complete secrecy. Information on how individual members vote is also not revealed.<\/p>\n \u201cWe discuss, we argue, there is a high temperature,\u201d Frydnes, the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, told the BBC, which got access to the final meeting of the committee this year.<\/p>\n \u201cBut also, of course, we are civilised, and we try to make a consensus-based decision every year,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Since Frydnes became chair of the committee in the group has given the Nobel Peace Prize to Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov in 2021 for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression; Belarusian dissident Ales Bialiatski in 2022 for protecting fundamental rights, and Iran\u2019s Narges Mohammadi in 2023 for fighting for women\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n Last year, Frydnes and the committee announced Japan\u2019s Nihon Hidankyo, a group of survivors of the 1945 US bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as the winner of the Peace Prize.<\/p>\n \u201cI grew up after the end of the Cold War, when democracy seemed unstoppable and nuclear disarmament realistic,\u201d Frydnes said when he presented the award.<\/p>\n Have any of the members been involved in any controversy?<\/p>\n Toje and Enger were also on the committee when Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed won the Prize in 2019 for his role in ending the 20-year military stalemate between Ethiopia and Eritrea. After Ahmed\u2019s win, Ethiopia unleashed a new offensive in Tigray in 2020.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are always some people who feel that this laureate was the wrong one,\u201d Toje had said<\/a> at an event hosted by the International Peace Institute (IPI) that same year.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce the announcement has been made, we realise it lives its own life \u2026 if the Nobel Peace Prize didn\u2019t spark outrage and strong emotions, well, we wouldn\u2019t be living up to our reputation,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n In 2023, Indian media also reported that Toje had endorsed India\u2019s prime minister, Narendra Modi, for the Nobel Peace Prize. But BOOM, a fact-checking news organisation in the country, found that it was a false claim<\/a> and that Toje had never made any such statement.<\/p>\n Back in 1994, Enger had voted against Norway\u2019s European Union membership. In her view, joining the EU would result in Norway losing its traditions and democracy. Enger has also championed anti-abortion campaigns but has been unsuccessful in reversing Norway\u2019s abortion rights.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Larsen has faced criticism from the Norwegian Israel Centre Against Anti-Semitism (NIS). In 2006, the institute wrote a letter to the former Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, accusing Larsen, his political adviser at the time, of demanding \u201ca full boycott of Israel\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was appointed as political adviser despite her being responsible for anti-Israel activities,\u201d the letter had said. It is not clear if Larsen responded to this claim.<\/p>\n What do they think of Trump?<\/p>\n Trump has been desperate to win the prize ever since US President Barack Obama won it in 2009.<\/p>\n Besides reiterating that he deserves this year\u2019s prize since he has resolved at least \u201cseven wars\u201d (now eight wars with the Gaza peace deal announced on Thursday), the US president has also called Norwegian diplomats, including former NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, who is the country\u2019s current finance minister, to lobby them for the Prize.<\/p>\n But Frydnes says the committee doesn\u2019t give in to such pressure, and a decision is always made independently.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery year, we receive thousands of letters, emails, requests, people saying \u2018this is the one you should choose\u2019 \u2013 so to have that campaign, the pressure \u2026 isn\u2019t really something new,\u201d he told the BBC.<\/p>\n Frydnes did not openly refer to Trump in the interview, but in the past, he has called out the US president for cracking down on \u201cdemocratic nations\u201d.<\/p>\n