Who decides if Trump wins Nobel Peace Prize or not? Meet the five judges

The winner for the Nobel Peace Prize will be announced Thursday at 09:00 GMT at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo. The prize is awarded by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which is responsible for selecting the laureates.

The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which is responsible for selecting the laureates.(REUTERS)

The committee has been awarding the Nobel Peace Prize since 1901, according to Alfred Nobel’s will. While the other four Nobel prizes are handled by Swedish committees, the Peace Prize is awarded by a Norwegian committee.

The committee has five members, who are appointed by the Storting (Norwegian Parliament).

The Nobel Peace Prize this year has 338 contenders, with United States President Donald Trump also eyeing the coveted prize. The US President has publicly expressed his desire to win the award, with the White House often echoing his thoughts. His pitch seemed to intensify on Thursday after he announced the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

Trump has, since his return to office in January this year, claimed he has ended wars around the world, and said it would be a “big insult” to America if he does not win.

Who are the five judges on Norway’s Nobel committee?

The members of the committee are elected for a period of six years and can be re-elected. According to the Nobel Peace Prize rules, its “composition reflects the relative strengths of the political parties in the Storting, and is assisted by specially appointed expert advisers.”

However, the members cannot be sitting members of the parliament. After they are elected, the committee picks its own chairman and deputy chairman, with the director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute serving as the secretary.

The members for this year’s committee include:

Jorgen Watne Frydnes

The chairman of the Nobel committee, Frydnes is the youngest ever to hold the post at 41. He had been appointed to the committee in 2021 and will remain a member till 2026.

Frydnes has worked as a human rights advocate, according to Al Jazeera, and has served as secretary-general of PEN Norway, a group promoting freedom of expression.

He has been a part of Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders, or MSF), a non-government organisation, and is also a member of another human rights NGO, Norwegian Helsinki Committee.

While officially nonpolitical, Frydnes leans towards supporting Norway’s ruling Labour Party.

Asle Toje

Toje, 51, is the vice chairman of the Nobel committee, and was first appointed to the committee in 2018. He was re-elected in 2024 and will remain a member till 2029.

Toje was a research director at the Norwegian Nobel Institute before joining the Nobel committee, according to Al Jazeera. Considered to be a conservative, Toje has also published a book titled ‘The European Union as a Small Power: After the Post-Cold War’.

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Anne Enger

Like Toje, Enger too has been a member of the committee since 2018 and has been reappointed for the period from 2021 to 2026.

Enger pursued her studies in nursing and started her career by teaching the subject, Al Jazeera reported. However, she switched careers to join politics, and supports Norway’s Centre Party.

Enger has previously served as the chief of the Ministry of Culture and deputy to the Norwegian prime minister between 1997 and 1999. She became the acting prime minister of Norway for three weeks in 1998 and became acting chief of the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy briefly in 1999.

Kristin Clemet

Clemet was appointed to the committee in 2021 and will remain a member till 2026. The 61-year-old is a politician for Norway’s conservative party Hoyre.

She is an economist, and has served as an adviser to Norway’s former prime minister Kare Willoch, of the Conservative Party, twice in the past. Clemet has also served as the country’s minister of education between 2001 to 2005, according to Al Jazeera.

Gry Larsen

The 49-year-old is a former Labour state secretary in the Foreign Ministry and the head of Norwegian humanitarian organisation CARE Norway.

She had previously been critical of the Trump-led US administration’s funding cuts to foreign aid spending. Larsen was appointed to the committee for the period of 2024 to 2029.