ANDALIB AKHTER
Even as demand for revocation of Noble prize given to Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi gaining momentum across the world following reports of atrocities on Rohingya Muslims, it is unlikely that the her prize would be revoked as the Norwegian Nobel Institute, that bestow prestigious awards has no sanction for such an action.
“No. Neither Alfred Nobel’s will nor the Statutes of the Nobel Foundation mention any such possibility. None of the prize awarding committees in Stockholm and Oslo has ever considered to revoke a prize once awarded,” said Olav Njølstad, the Director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute in a reply to a question on possibility of revocation of Nobel Peace Prize.
According to the Statutes of the Nobel Foundation, § 10, “No appeals may be made against the decision of a prize-awarding body with regard to the award of a prize”.
To a query on his official website as how do you look upon criticism of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates after they have been awarded?, Prof Olav Njølstad said: “This is something we try to follow closely; sometimes with great concern. However, as a matter of principle the Norwegian Nobel Committee never comment upon what the Peace Prize Laureates may say and do after they have been awarded the prize. The Committee’s mandate is restricted to evaluate the work and efforts of the nominated candidates up to the moment it is decided who shall be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for a given year”. (Source http://www.nobelprize.org/)
As the misery of Rohingya Muslims deepen in Myanmar, social media users from across the globe have started signing an online petition to rescind Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s Nobel Peace Prize.
The petition ‘Take Back Aung San Suu Kyi’s Nobel Peace Prize’ has taken the social media, specially Twitter, by storm as around over 3.1 lac people have signed the petition in protest against silence of Suu Kyi on persecution of Muslims in her country.
The petition has demanded that “the Chair of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee confiscate or take back the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Aung San Suu Kyi.” People are also demanding to take back the six million Swedish krona prize money that she won along with the Nobel Prize in 1991.
Columnist George Monbiot in an article in the Guardian too asked authorities: “Take away Aung San Suu Kyi’s Nobel peace prize. She no longer deserves it.”
“I found myself signing a petition for the revocation of her Nobel peace prize I believe the Nobel committee should retain responsibility for the prizes it awards, and withdraw them if its laureates later violate the principles for which they were recognized,” he writes.
“By any standards, the treatment of the Rohingya people, a Muslim minority in Myanmar, is repugnant. By the standards Aung San Suu Kyi came to symbolise, it is grotesque. They have been described by the UN as “the world’s most persecuted minority”, a status that has not changed since she took office” writes Monbiot adding that, “Friends of mine devoted their working lives to the campaign for her release from the many years of detention imposed by the military dictatorship of Myanmar, and for the restoration of democracy. We celebrated when she was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1991; when she was finally released from house arrest in 2010; and when she won the general election in 2015.
The UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar has lately lambasted the Myanmar leader for failing to protect the Rohingya Muslim minority as she has adopted silence on the plight of the Muslim minority that is being systematically oppressed by the Buddhist government and extremists.
Many celebrities and world known figures have also criticised the Myanmar government for failing to contain the persecution.
Additional input from http://www.nobelprize.org/