The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the most prestigious honors in the world. It is awarded to individuals, institutions or international organizations that have made special efforts to establish or restore peace in a conflict zone, as well as its reservation at the international level. The first award of this kind was awarded in 1901 to the founder of the Red Cross, Henry Dunant, and the leader of the pacifist movement at the time, Frederic Passy. To date 95 individuals and 20 organizations have been honored with this award.
In 2009 the winner of the Nobel Prize was Barack Obama.
In March 2008, controversy erupted over Jeremiah Wright, Obama's pastor of the last 20 years, after ABC News aired footage of his sermons with a strong racial and political charge. Obama initially responded by defending Wright's role in Chicago's African-American community, but condemned his remarks and ended campaign relations with Wright. During the controversy, Obama gave a speech titled "A More Perfect Union") in which he addressed racial issues. Obama later left Trinity United Church of Christ "to avoid the impression that he endorses the full range of views expressed within that church."
On June 19, Obama became the first presidential candidate to refuse public funding in a general election since the system was created in 1976, changing his mind after initially wanting to accept it.
On November 4, 2008, Barack Obama defeated John McCain in the general election, and became the first African-American elected president of the United States. In his post-election speech to hundreds of thousands of supporters in Chicago, Obama said "change has come to America."
Critics argued that it was inappropriate for the award to go to the president of a country involved in military conflicts in Iran and Afghanistan.
Malala Yousafzai won the Nobel Prize in 2014. This is a Pakistani student, known for her activity and militant spirit on issues of education and Islamic society in general, especially discrimination against women. These issues were revealed in a blog she wrote for the BBC in 2009. The following year, The New York Times produced a documentary on the subject starring Malala Yousafzai.
As a result of violating the Taliban's ban on girls not going to school, Malala fell victim to the attack on October 9, 2012. Then a group of Taliban stopped Malala's school bus and opened fire on her. The teenager was seriously injured in the head, but escaped alive.
In appreciation of her work, she is nominated for the International Children's Peace Prize, the publication "Time" places her among the first 100 people of the world. On October 10, 2014, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (which he shared with Kailash Satyarthi, who has been fighting against child exploitation since the 1990s) "for the fight against the oppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education".
Juan Manuel Santos Calderón won the Nobel Prize in 2016. He is a Colombian politician who was the 32nd president of Colombia. He came to power during a crisis in relations between Colombia and Venezuela, which he quickly resolved. In 2016 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end more than 50 years of civil strife in the country.
Maria Angelita Ressa is a Filipino-American journalist and author, co-founder and CEO of Rappler. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021, along with Dmitri Muratov, "for their efforts to protect freedom of expression, a prerequisite for democracy and lasting peace."
Narges Safie Mohammadi is an Iranian human rights activist and the Vice President of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC), led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi. In May 2016, she was sentenced in Tehran to 16 years in prison for founding and leading a "human rights movement campaigning for the abolition of the death penalty". In 2022, she was named in the BBC 100 Women list. In 2023, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and the fight to promote human rights and freedom for all".