A New Student Peace Prize Laureate
12 Mar 2010
Facilitating the search for a new Laureate is one of the most important tasks of the Student Peace Prize Secretariat, but it is not the Secretariat itself that actually chooses the Laureate. The Secretariat makes sure that the statutes of the Student Peace Prize are followed, while independent committees manage the nomination process and the final election of a Laureate.
The first step in the process of choosing a Laureate is managed by a Nomnation Committee that seeks and receives nominations from anyone that wants to nominate a candidate to the Prize. The Nomination Committee normally starts its work about one year before the prize is awarded to the Laureate, and this year the Nomination Committee consists of five students from major universities and universitiy colleges in Norway: the University of Tromsø, the University of Bergen, the Norwegian School of Management (BI), the University of Oslo, and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim.
After the nomination deadline, the Nomination Committee writes a report consisting of a minimum of three qualified candidates for the Student Peace Prize. This report is then handed over to another committee, the Student Peace Prize Committee, which makes the final decision based on that report. The Student Peace Prize Committee consists of four students appointed by the National Students Union and the Norwegian Association of Students, four experts and one leader. Since 2007 the leader of SAIH has also been the leader of the Peace Prize committee. Over the years many prominent persons have been in the committee, amongst others Kjell Magne Bondevik, former Norwegian Prime Minister, Bjørn Hansen, former journalist in NRK and Thorvald Stoltenberg, former Minister of Foreign Affairs and President of the Norwegian Red Cross.
When the committee has made its decision, the new Student Peace Prize Laureate is made known to the Secretariat, which then organizes the public announcement of the award, and plans the Laureates stay in Norway, which includes an award ceremony that takes place during the International Student Festival in Trondheim.
The Student Peace Prize 2011 will be awarded during the International Student Festival in Trondheim in February 2011.
For more information about the Student Peace Prize, visit www.studentpeaceprize.org.
