The Peace Research Institute in Oslo (PRIO), an institution which attempts to predict the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize each year, has said that Pope Francis and Edward Snowden are among the best bets to secure this year’s Nobel Prize.
According to the organization’s most recent list of favorites, at the front of the line is Japanese People Who Conserve Article 9, which is an organization dedicated to preserving the article within Japan’s constitution. Article 9 establishes that Japan cannot go to war to settle disputes in international relations. Article 9, and the Constitution as a whole, came to fruition following Japan’s defeat in World War II.
The PRIO report stated, “We may have come to think of wars between states as virtually extinct after the end of the Cold War, but events in Ukraine and simmering tensions in East Asia remind us they may reappear. A return to a principle often hailed in earlier periods of the Peace Prize would be well timed.”
The Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded Friday, October 10th.
The current list of favorites includes:
- Pope Francis, pope of the Catholic Church
- Edward Snowden, a former U.S. intelligence contractor who leaked information about surveillance programs and top-secret U.S. weapons’ designs, and is now hiding in Russia to avoid prosecution
- Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani female adolescent who was shot by the Taliban, and has now taken safe refuge in the West
- Denis Mukwege, a Congolese gynecologist who specializes in treating female victims of rape
- Novaya Gazeta (New Gazette), a Russian newspaper known for its critical coverage of the Putin regime
Among the more recent controversial winners of the Nobel Peace Prize are:
- Yasser Arafat (1994), former leader of the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) terrorist organization, which is a group that continues to be sworn to Israel’s destruction
- Wangari Maathai (2004), an African female who suggested that white scientists may have created HIV to kill black people
- Al Gore (2007), former Democratic presidential nominee who posited many discredited assertions about the threats of global warming
- Barack Obama (2009), who before stepping into the Oval Office received the Nobel Peace Prize, and as president, has authorized military action in Yemen, Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, Syria, Chad, Turkey, Jordan, Uganda, Mali, Libya, and Pakistan.