Black Lives Matter movement nominated for Nobel peace prize
The Black Lives Matter movement has been nominated for the 2021 Nobel peace prize for the best way its name for systemic change has unfold around the globe. In his nomination papers, Norwegian MP Petter Eide mentioned the movement had pressured international locations exterior the US to grapple with racism inside their very own societies.
“I find that one of the key challenges we have seen in America, but also in Europe and Asia, is the kind of increasing conflict based on inequality. Black Lives Matter has become a very important worldwide movement to fight racial injustice,” Eide mentioned. “They have had a tremendous achievement in raising global awareness and consciousness about racial injustice.”
Eide, who has beforehand nominated human rights activists from Russia and China for the prize, mentioned one different factor that impressed him in regards to the Black Lives Matter movement was the best way “they have been able to mobilise people from all groups of society, not just African-Americans, not just oppressed people, it has been a broad movement, in a way which has been different from their predecessors.”
The Black Lives Matter movement was based in 2013 in response to the acquittal within the US of the person who shot Trayvon Martin. It gained wider recognition in 2014 following protests over the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, and was the wellspring of a collection of world protests in 2020 following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
Nominations for the Nobel peace prize are accepted from any politician serving at a nationwide stage, and they’re allowed simply 2,000 phrases to state their case. The deadline for this yr’s submission is 1 February, and by the top of March the committee prepares a shortlist. The winner is chosen in October and the award ceremony is scheduled for 10 December. There have been greater than 300 nominations for final yr’s award, which was in the end won by the World Food Programme.
The committee award the WFP as a result of it wished to “turn the eyes of the world to the millions of people who suffer from or face the threat of hunger”, however maybe the most high profile nomination last year was for former US president Donald Trump.
Trump was nominated for a second time by one other Norwegian MP, Christian Tybring-Gjedde. The far-right MP cited Trump’s function in normalising relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates underneath the Abraham Accords, though Eide mentioned he had “a little difficulty defending that nomination” after the Capitol riot of 6 January when a pro-Trump mob stormed the US Congress buildings and 5 individuals died.
Eide, nonetheless, mentioned he didn’t need his nomination for Black Lives Matter to be seen as a touch upon home US politics. And he dismissed criticism from rightwing voices that the group had been behind violence in US cities. “Studies have shown that most of the demonstrations organised by Black Lives Matter have been peaceful. Of course there have been incidents, but most of them have been caused by the activities of either the police or counter-protestors.”
Data assembled by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data undertaking in September 2020 confirmed that 93% of Black Lives Matter demonstrations involved no serious harm to individuals or property.
The 61-year-old politician, who has represented the Socialist Left get together in parliament since 2017, cited precedents of the Oslo-based Nobel prize committee recognising the battle in opposition to racism. Albert Luthuli and Nelson Mandela obtained the prize in 1960 and 1993 respectively for advocating in opposition to racial discrimination in South Africa, and Martin Luther King was awarded the prize for non-violent resistance in opposition to racism within the US in 1964. Mandela shared his award with FW de Klerk, the person who ordered the ANC chief’s launch from jail.
“There is actually a tradition for doing this,” Eide mentioned. “It’s a strong linkage between antiracism movements and peace, and a recognition that without this kind of justice, there will be no peace and stability in the society.”
His written nomination concludes: “Awarding the peace prize to Black Lives Matter, as the strongest global force against racial injustice, will send a powerful message that peace is founded on equality, solidarity and human rights, and that all countries must respect those basic principles.”
