Noble aims but at what price?
◆ The Nobel Foundation has made a U-turn over inviting Russia after a backlash forced a rethink
When my daughter was in her early years of primary school, class birthday parties were common – a hall, a bouncy castle and food, for 30-odd six-yearolds. Class parties meant the whole class. No leaving someone out because they had cheated at tig or refused to share their crisps in the playground. Everyone received an invitation. That was just the way it worked.
While this blanket inclusivity is laudable, the question occasionally rears its head as to what a parent should do if they feel they do not want a particular child in the class to attend. If their own child was being badly bullied by another pupil in the class, for example, should the bully still be invited?
Some may say no. Others would argue there are two sides to every story and without knowing all of the facts, it is unfair to leave them out.
This is the conundrum faced by global sporting bodies, international chess championship organisers and, most recently, the Nobel Foundation. The latter U-turned on a decision to invite Russia, Belarus and Iran to the awards ceremony for the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway this week.
The countries’ ambassadors were excluded last year over the invasion of Ukraine and – in the case of Iran – human rights violations, but were set to be re-admitted this year – until a major backlash forced the Nobel’s officials to reconsider.
Protesters have pointed out the invitations were specifically for ambassadors, who are representatives of the government. Belarusian and Russian peace and human rights activists are still eligible for the award.
Yet there are plenty of countries which have erred on a major scale which continue to be universally accepted on the international stage. China has not been banned from competition over human rights allegations relating to its treatments of Uyghur Muslims, while North Korea has cosied up further with Russia this week in the form of a potential arms deal.
In an increasingly turbulent world, what line must be crossed for a country to be barred from international competition? Or does acceptance require a nation to be squeaky clean? If so, there could be a lot of countries finding themselves excluded.