Under the provisions of Alfred Nobel’s will, the Norwegian Nobel Committee is charged with awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to the person or organisation that has conferred the greatest benefit to humankind in the field of peace during the preceding year.

The terms of the will provide additional guidance as to the types of pursuits that should be given special emphasis in selecting Nobel Peace Prize laureates. The Committee is also responsible for arranging an award presentation ceremony in Oslo each year on 10 December, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death. These are the Committee’s chief duties as provided in the will and the statutes of the Nobel Foundation.

Accordingly, it is not the Committee’s role to comment on what a peace laureate may do or say in the years after receiving the prize. It is similarly outside the Committee’s remit to retract a prize once awarded. Nobel Foundation statutes make it clear that the opportunity to do so does not exist.