The 2019 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the

prime minister of Ethiopia The prime minister of Ethiopia is the head of government and chief executive of Ethiopia. Ethiopia is a parliamentary republic with a prime minister as head of the government and the commander-in-chief of the Ethiopian Armed Forces. The pri ...

Abiy Ahmed (born 1976) "for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighbouring Eritrea." The award was announced by the Norwegian Nobel Committee on 11 October 2019. One year after Abiy received the

prize A prize is an award to be given to a person or a group of people (such as sporting teams and organizations) to recognize and reward their actions and achievements.

, he presided over the outbreak of the Tigray War, which saw hundreds of thousands of casualties and led to the displacement of more than 800,000 persons. In response to the outbreak of hostilities, the Norwegian Nobel Committee released a statement in January 2022 which called the humanitarian situation "extremely serious"; said the lack of delivery of humanitarian aid to Tigray was "unacceptable"; and observed that "As

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

and a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Abiy Ahmed has a special responsibility to end the conflict and help to create peace." Since Abiy was awarded the prize, his leadership during Tigray War has been characterized by media organizations such as

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

Der Spiegel (, , stylized in all caps) is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of about 724,000 copies in 2022, it is one of the largest such publications in Europe. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...

, NPR, and

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genocidal Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" b ...

Candidates

Nobel Committee

Tasked with reviewing nominations from September of the previous year through February 1 and ultimately selecting the Prize winners, the members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee for 2019 were: * Berit Reiss-Andersen (chair, born 1954),

advocate An advocate is a professional in the field of law. List of country legal systems, Different countries and legal systems use the term with somewhat differing meanings. The broad equivalent in many English law–based jurisdictions could be a ba ...

(barrister) and president of the Norwegian Bar Association, former state secretary for the Minister of Justice and the Police (representing the Labour Party). Member of the Norwegian Nobel Committee since 2012, reappointed for the period 2018–2023. * Henrik Syse (vice-chair, born 1966), research professor at the

Peace Research Institute Oslo The Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO; ) is a private research institution in peace and conflict studies, based in Oslo, Norway, with around 100 employees. It was founded in 1959 by a group of Norwegian researchers led by Johan Galtung, who was ...

. Member of the Committee since 2015, appointed for the period 2015–2020. * Thorbjørn Jagland (born 1950), former Member of Parliament and President of the Storting and former Prime Minister for the Labour Party, current Secretary-General of the

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; , CdE) is an international organisation with the goal of upholding human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it is Europe's oldest intergovernmental organisation, represe ...

. Chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee from 2009 to 2015. Currently regular member. Member of the Committee since 2009, reappointed for the period 2015–2020. * Anne Enger (born 1949), former Leader of the Centre Party and

Minister of Culture A culture minister or a heritage minister is a common cabinet position in governments. The culture minister is typically responsible for cultural policy, which often includes arts policy (direct and indirect support to artists and arts organiza ...

. Appointed for the period 2018–2020. * Asle Toje (born 1974), foreign policy scholar. Appointed for the period 2018–2023.

References

{{2019 Nobel Prize winners

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

2019 awards Abiy Ahmed 2019 in Ethiopia 2019 in Norway 2020s controversies Prelude to the Tigray war October 2019 in Norway Ethiopia–Norway relations