The movement is nominated by Norwegian MP Petter Eide for raising awareness and consciousness about racial injustice.
The movement that swept the world and sparked a wave of global protests challenging systemic racism, first in the US and then beyond is now getting recognised in the form of a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize 2021. The Black Lives Matter movement that spurred people across the world to fight against global racial injustice has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
What else can be a better way to kick off Black History Month this year? The month that reflects the continued struggle for racial justice has brought some good news this year. The movement Black Lives Matter is running for the Nobel Peace Prize 2021, and the credit goes a Norwegian lawmaker, Petter Eide. The Norwegian MP Petter Eide has nominated the global movement “for its struggle against racism and raising global awareness against racial injustice.”
Black Lives Matter wasn’t the movement that was born in 2020, it existed pre-2020 as well. It was in 2013 when activist Alicia Garza wrote “Black Lives Matter” in a Facebook post, but the words came to define a global movement with the death of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in 2020. Since then, the movement gained a lot of momentum and inspired peaceful protests and marches in hundreds of countries across the globe.
BLM: Global effort to fight racial inequality
Petter Eide, in his nomination letter, wrote that he had nominated Black Lives Matter “for the movement’s struggle against racism and racially motivated violence.” In the nomination papers, Eide also added that the movement had even forced countries outside the US to grapple with racism within their own societies.
Eide said, “I find that one of the key challenges we have seen in America, but also in Europe and Asia, is the kind of increasing conflict based on inequality. The movement has raised a tremendous achievement in raising global awareness and consciousness about racial injustice.” He also added that the biggest reason he was impressed with the Black Lives Matter movement was the way, the movement was able to mobilise people from all groups of society.
Black Lives Matter: A powerful message
While Eide wrote his nomination letter, he added that to link a fight of racial justice with peace is not unusual for the Nobel Prize Committee. In 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in leading the civil rights movement. Albert Luthuli and Nelson Mandela also won the prize in 1960 and 1993, respectively, for their work in South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement.
Awarding peace prize to Black Lives Matter will send a powerful message across the globe that peace is founded on equality, solidarity, and human rights, and that all countries must respect those basic principles, and respect every person’s right to life.
Other nominees for Nobel Peace Prize 2021
Former US President Donald Trump, environment activist Greta Thunberg and Russian dissident Alexei Navalny are among the nominees for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Apart from these World Health Organization is also among the nominees.
Trump is again nominated by another Norwegian MP, Christian Tybring-Gjedde. The far-right MP cited Trump’s role in normalising relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates under the Abraham Accords for his nomination. Although, it has been reported that Tybring-Gjedde is having “a little difficulty in defending trump’s nomination” after the Capitol riot that took place earlier this year.
Not only Trump but Former White House senior adviser and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and his deputy, Avi Berkowitz, have also been nominated for the Nobel peace prize for their role in negotiating four normalisation deals between Israel and Arab nations known as the “Abraham Accords”.
While on the other hand, at least two Swedish lawmakers nominated climate activist Greta Thunberg for protesting outside Swedish parliament after skipping school to create awareness about climate change. Thunberg was named as one of “the foremost spokespeople in the fight against the climate crisis”, with the campaigning group she co-founded, Fridays for Future.
Alexei Navalny is nominated by Russian academics and is named for his “efforts for a peaceful democratisation of Russia” by Norwegian former minister Ola Elvestuen.
WHO and its COVAX programme is also nominated for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize. Apart from WHO, organisations like NATO and the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) are also nominated for Peace Prize this year which will be announced in the month of October.