Guterres Named One of the Favorites for the Nobel Peace Prize

In addition to Guterres, experts point to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as favorites. Bookmakers, meanwhile, believe in Alexei Navalny and Volodymyr Zelensky, but neither is likely to take the prize.

Portugal's António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) are among the favorites for the Nobel Peace Prize. Reuters news agency quotes experts as saying this. 

 

Reuters points out that bookmakers put Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny, who died in a penal colony in the Arctic in February, as the favorite, but this will not be possible because the prize is not awarded posthumously. Another favorite is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who will also not be able to receive the prize because he is the leader of a country at war.

According to experts, the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which will announce its decision on October 11, may want to focus on “humanitarian actors” in a year marked by the war between Israel and Hamas, the conflict in Ukraine and violence in Sudan. 

“UNRWA could be one of those candidates. They are doing extremely important work for Palestinian civilians suffering from the war in Gaza,” Henrik Urdal, director of the Oslo Peace Research Institute, told Reuters.

Asle Sveen, a Nobel Peace Prize historian, pointed to António Guterres as the favorite - with or without the International Court of Justice - and explained that the five-member committee, appointed by the Norwegian parliament, may also want to focus on the need to strengthen the international world order built after the Second World War and its highest institution.

“Guterres is the ultimate symbol of the UN,” he told Reuters. “And the ICJ's most important duty is to ensure that international humanitarian law is applied globally.”

However, there is also talk that the committee will just decide not to award the Nobel Peace Prize, something that has happened in 19 years. “Perhaps this is the year that the Nobel Peace Prize committee should simply refuse the prize and focus on the fact that this is a planet at war,” explained Dan Smith, director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, also to Reuters.

Guterres' name as a favorite for the Nobel Peace Prize comes a day after Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz announced that the country had declared the Portuguese national “persona non grata”, criticizing him for not having condemned Iran's massive attack on Israel on Tuesday night.

“Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran's heinous attack on Israel does not deserve to set foot on Israeli soil. We are dealing with an anti-Israel secretary-general who supports terrorists, rapists and murderers,” Katz said in a statement.

Last year, the prize was awarded to Narges Mohammadi, an Iranian activist who has been held in Tehran's Evin prison since November 2021.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the prize to Mohammadi “for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and for promoting human rights and freedom”.