The 1965 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). In her presentation speech, Mrs. Aase Lionaes, a member of the Nobel Committee, said this, which is still true today:
“Today the people of the developing countries are fully alive to their own misery; and they are determined to leave it behind. They contemplate the riches of the West — our surplus food, our fantastic technology, the health and good things that we enjoy in life, all our material well-being — and they compare them with the misery of their own children. This contrast creates a dangerous tension factor which threatens the peace of the world. The aim of UNICEF is to spread a table, decked with all the good things that nature provides, for all the children of the world. For this reason the organization is a peace factor of great importance.”
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes created by the Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel. Since 1901 it has been awarded annually (with some exceptions) to those who have “done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses” Over the next few months we’ll be introducing you to the past Nobel laureates, leading up to the award of the 2016 prize in October.
