I owe my friend Frank Murphy all the credit for forwarding me the fascinating Associated Press article just ahead.
'Tis the season, of course, with the prizes for medicine, physics, chemistry, and literature all having been handed out this week and the winners for the peace prize coming later today and the economics announcement on Monday.
Here then are "Common misconceptions about the Nobel Peace Prize...
An award that generates as much interest as the Nobel Peace Prize is bound to be surrounded by mystery, myth and misconceptions.
Geir Lundestad, secretary of the secretive committee that awards the prize, once outlined for The Associated Press some of the most common misunderstandings:
_ Myth: The awards committee announces a shortlist of candidates.
The committee does not release the names of any candidates and keeps records sealed for 50 years.
_ Myth: A campaign for a particular candidate can sway the awards committee.
It could have the opposite effect on the fiercely independent committee, which does not want to appear to have been influenced by public pressure.
_ Myth: Candidates can be nominated until the last minute.
The nomination deadline is eight months before the announcement, with a strictly enforced deadline of Feb. 1.
_ Myth: Anyone can nominate a person or group for the Peace Prize.
Nobel statutes state who may make nominations. They were slightly broadened in 2003, and now include former laureates; current and former members of the committee and their staff; members of national governments and legislatures; university professors of law, theology, social sciences, history and philosophy; leaders of peace research and foreign affairs institutes; and members of international courts of law.
_ Myth: The prize can be revoked if a laureate does not live up to the standards of the peace prize.
There are no provisions in the Nobel statutes for revoking the prize. The committee says the prizes are awarded for efforts up to the moment of the announcement.
_ Myth: The prize can be awarded posthumously.
The prize was award posthumously only once — in 1961, to former U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammerskjold, after he was killed in a plane crash in Africa. The rules were amended in 1974 to prohibit posthumous prizes.
_ Myth: The prize is awarded to recognize efforts for peace, human rights and democracy only after they have proven successful.
More often, the prize is awarded to encourage those who receive it to see the effort through, sometimes at critical moments in a process.
_ Myth: The Nobel peace prize is awarded in Stockholm, Sweden.
It is awarded in the Norwegian capital of Oslo as stipulated in Alfred Nobel's will. The other five Nobel prizes are awarded in Stockholm."
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