And the Nobel Peace Prize goes to…

Liberia's Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and the Yemeni Tawakkul Karman won the Nobel Peace Prize 2011 "for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work". Do you agree with the decision? If not, who should it have gone to and why?

Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize is one of five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel. It was first awarded in 1901.

According to Nobel’s will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who “…shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses”.

The Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony is held at the Oslo City Hall. As of 2009, the prize is worth ten million Norwegian krone (SFr1.57 million).

Three Swiss have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize:

1901: Henri Dunant, originator of the Geneva Conventions and founder of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

1902: Albert Gobat and Elie Ducommun of the Bern-based Permanent International Peace Bureau. This organisation also received the prize in 1910.

The ICRC has been awarded the prize three times (1917, 1944 and 1963).

Other Geneva-based organisations that have been recognised: League Of Red Cross Societies (1963), Nansen International Office For Refugees (1938), the UNHCR (1954, 1981), the International Labor Organization (1969), Médecins Sans Frontières (1999) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2007).