‘Give Queen a Nobel Prize for her service’
Commonwealth leaders could nominate monarch for peace award as they hold summit in London
THE Queen should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for more than 60 years service to the Commonwealth, senior political figures and ministers say.
The Daily Telegraph has learned that several smaller Commonwealth countries are in talks to nominate the Queen for the prestigious award, and the proposal is likely to be discussed on the margins at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in London next week.
One source said: “It is being discussed by different high commissioners. They want to nominate her for what she has done for the Commonwealth.”
The suggestion has won the support of Lord Howell of Guildford, a former foreign office minister, and the president of the Royal Commonwealth Society who said: “I think it is a good idea.” Ministers are also privately supporting the initiative, with one saying “it is a lovely idea and it would be great if it happens” although they pointed out there is a formal nominating process.
The source added: “If someone nominates her and she is successful, I think the whole country would be thrilled to bits and consider her fully deserving.”
Commonwealth leaders discussed the nomination – to recognise her leadership of the organisation since 1952 – at the last Commonwealth summit in Malta in 2015.
Frank Field, the veteran Labour MP who developed the “Queen’s Commonwealth canopy” initiative to preserve indigenous forests in Commonwealth countries, said he backed the proposal.
He said: “If, over 60 years, the Queen’s determined diplomacy in keeping the Commonwealth alive and functioning – which is a model of how a multitude of nations around the world can police themselves – doesn’t qualify her for a Nobel Prize, it is difficult to think what more anyone can do.”
The biennial Commonwealth summit – which starts on April 16 – was last staged in the UK in 1997 and is expected to be the last to be personally attended by the Queen, who is in her 90s. Britain is well placed to promote the Queen’s nomination over the next two years because it is the UK’S turn to take over the rotating chairmanship of the Commonwealth.
The annual Peace Prize is awarded to the person who is judged to “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”.
Nominations for the prize, which is run by the Nobel Foundation in Oslo, close on January 31 every year. The winners are announced the following December after a rigorous selection process. There are 329 candidates for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize – 216 individuals and 113 organisations. MPS and heads of state have the right to nominate people for the prize.
In 1990, President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia nominated Princess Anne for her work leading Save the Children. Mikhail Gorbachev, former Russian president, won that year.
Four US presidents, including Barack Obama in 2009, have won the prize, while Queen Sofia of Spain was one of the nominees in 2015 for her work supporting Alzheimer’s research.