The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to give the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 United States President Barack Obama. The Committee announced the award yesterday, October 9, 2009 during a press conference at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo, Norway.
President Obama is the fourth U.S President to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize after Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, Woodrow Wilson in 1919 and Jimmy Carter in 2002 and the first U.S. president to receive the award within the first year of his tenure.
There were a total of 205 nominations for the 2009 award which includes Chairperson of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) Sima Samar, Chinese activisst and dissident Hu Jia, current Senator Piedad Cordoba of Colombia, and Prime Minister of Zimbabwe Morgan Tsvangirai. Thorbjoern Jagland, the Nobel Committee head, was asked why they chose Obama and he said that they would like to support what Obama is trying to achieve. As what the Committee stated on their website (nobelprize.org), President Obama has created a ‘new climate in international politics‘ and citing Obama’s promotion of nuclear nonproliferation.
President Obama will receive a gold medal, a diploma, and a prize money amounting to $1.4 million. Whitehouse spokesman said that the President plans to donate the money to charity. He would travel to Oslo on December 10, 2009 to accept the prize.
See complete winners here – 2009 Nobel Prize winners.
Topics: award, Barack Obama, news, Nobel Peace Prize, Norway, politics, USA
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