How are Nobel Peace Prize winners selected from the nominations?

1. Who may nominate and what counts as a valid nomination

The Nobel Foundation’s statutes set eligibility for nominators and what makes a valid submission; nominations must arrive no later than January 31 each year and are preferably submitted through an online form. The Norwegian Nobel Institute registers the nominations and the committee may add names at its first meeting after the deadline ^{[1] [4]}.

2. Scale and secrecy: how many names and when they’re revealed

Each year “several hundred” nominations are received; the Nobel Institute recorded 338 candidates for 2025 (244 individuals, 94 organisations). The committee itself keeps nominations secret for 50 years; it is common, however, for nominators or nominees to publicise candidacies even though the Nobel bodies do not ^{[1] [5] [2]}.

3. The committee’s work: advisers, experts and reports

After nominations close, the Norwegian Nobel Committee draws on advisers—typically the Nobel Institute director, research director and a small group of university experts—and sometimes asks other Norwegian and foreign specialists for reports. Those reports are used to prepare a shortlist and to underpin the committee’s discussions over several months ^[3].

4. How a laureate is chosen: consensus first, majority if needed

The committee “seeks to achieve consensus” when selecting the laureate; on rare occasions when consensus cannot be reached, the decision is made by a simple majority vote. The final selection is made in early October, is final and without appeal, and is then publicly announced ^{[1] [3] [6]}.

5. Criteria and interpretation: Nobel’s will and modern practice

Alfred Nobel’s will sets the prize to “the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations…” The Norwegian Nobel Committee interprets that mandate across time; in practice the interpretation has broadened to include human rights, democracy and other efforts viewed as contributing to peace, as reflected in modern citations and press releases ^{[7] [8] [3]}.

6. Timeline: roughly eight months from nominations to award

Nomination submissions close in late January, the committee holds an initial meeting (for example in 2025 the first meeting was 26 February), advisers report over a few months, and the committee aims to decide by early October. The prize is then presented on 10 December in Oslo ^{[1] [4] [3] [7]}.

7. Limits, controversies and political reading

The process is deliberately secretive and political questions regularly surface: the committee is appointed by the Norwegian parliament, decisions are final, and choices often provoke debate about politicisation or suitability. Sources note that the Peace Prize’s political nature has produced controversies historically, and contemporary selections attract strong political reactions from stakeholders, illustrating the unavoidable interplay of law, interpretation and politics ^{[9] [5] [8]}.

8. What the public and claimants should not assume

Being nominated is not an endorsement by the Nobel Committee and may not be used to imply official affiliation; the committee’s task is limited to selecting the best candidate from the submissions. Because nominations are confidential for 50 years, public claims about who nominated whom are either initiated by nominators/nominees themselves or cannot be verified from Nobel records until decades later ^{[1] [4]}.

Limitations: available sources do not mention detailed internal voting rules beyond “simple majority” or the exact makeup of the pool of nominators in statutory text—those specifics are not in the provided reporting (not found in current reporting).