The Nobel Peace Prize for 2025 has been awarded to Venezuelan politician María Corina Machado. She was honored for her "tireless work" in defense of the democratic rights of the Venezuelan people.
The Nobel Peace Prize for 2025 has been awarded to Venezuelan politician María Corina Machado. This decision was announced on Friday, October 10, by the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo.
Machado was honored for her "tireless work" in defense of the democratic rights of the Venezuelan people, said the chair of the Norwegian Committee, Jørgen Watne Friberg.
The committee noted her contribution to the struggle for a fair and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy. "Democracy depends on people who dare to step forward, despite serious risks," emphasized the head of the committee.
One of the Iconic Figures in Protests Against Maduro
Machado is one of the iconic figures in the Venezuelan protests against Nicolás Maduro's government. In 2024, she actively opposed the officially declared victory of Maduro in the elections.
Together with opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, who replaced Machado on the ballot after she was banned from participating in the elections, the opposition leader was forced to go into hiding.
Experts have repeatedly expressed concerns regarding her safety. The Norwegian Committee did not respond to whether she would be able to attend the award ceremony on December 10 in Oslo.
Previously, U.S. President Donald Trump claimed several times that he was "worthy of the prize," that he had "ended seven wars," and that not awarding him would be an "insult to the United States."
A Total of 338 Candidates Nominated for the Prize
This year, a total of 338 candidates were nominated for the prize, including 244 individuals and 94 organizations. Last year, 286 candidates were registered, including 197 individuals and 89 organizations. The highest number of candidates was registered in 2016 - 376.
Nobel Peace Prize Laureates for 2024, 2023, and 2022
The Nobel Peace Prize for 2024 was awarded to the association Nihon Hidankyo - the Japanese Council of Organizations of Victims of the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which advocates for nuclear disarmament. In 2023, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi for her "fight against the oppression of women in Iran and the promotion of human rights and freedom for all." In 2022, the award went to human rights defenders from Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine: the Russian human rights organization Memorial, the Ukrainian public organization Center for Civil Liberties, and the founder of the Belarusian human rights center Viasna, Ales Bialiatski.
One of the two Nobel Peace Prize laureates in 2021 was Dmitry Muratov, the editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta. Along with him, the prize was awarded to Filipino journalist Maria Ressa. Muratov and Ressa represented all journalists fighting for this ideal "in a world where democracy and press freedom are facing increasingly adverse conditions," the committee noted. Muratov became the third Russian to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, following physicist and human rights activist Andrei Sakharov and the last president of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev.
Nobel Prizes Have Been Awarded Since 1901
Five different Nobel Prizes (in physiology and medicine, physics, chemistry, literature, and peace) were established by the will of dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel and have been awarded since 1901. Since 1969, at the initiative of the Bank of Sweden, a prize in economic sciences in memory of Nobel has been awarded, which is also unofficially referred to as the Nobel Prize in Economics. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in the Norwegian capital Oslo, while all others are awarded in the Swedish capital Stockholm.
Nobel Peace Prize
According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize is 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 was first awarded in 1901. Its laureates were the founder of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Swiss entrepreneur and public figure Henry Dunant, and the founder of the pacifist organization "League of Peace and Freedom," French politician Frédéric Passy.
