Nobel Peace Prize Winners Trivia Quiz

Answer: Aung San Suu Kyi

At the ceremony, the Chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, Francis Sejested, called her "an outstanding example of the power of the powerless". By her actions Aung San Suu Kyi has become an international symbol of heroic and peaceful resistance against government oppression.

When a military junta took over control of Burma in 1989 Aung San Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest for six years as the leader of the National League for Democracy party. Since then she has been in, and out, of house arrest at the whim of the dictators.

Answer: Andrei Sakharov

From the late 1950s onwards Sakharov was troubled about the moral and ethical implications of his work into the Hydrogen bomb and was strongly against nuclear proliferation in the 60s, resulting in the ban of atmospheric tests. In 1968 Sakharov was banned in participating in any military based research after he had circulated an essay entitled "Reflections on progress, Peaceful Coexistence and Intellectual Freedom", which called for the rejection of an anti-ballistic missile defense.

In 1970 Sakharov, along with Valéry Chalidze and Andrei Tverdokhlebov, founded the "Moscow Human Rights Committee".

He was put forward for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 but did not win it until 1975 when, due to stringent limits placed on his movements by the Soviet government, his wife received the prize and read out his acceptance speech.

Answer: Frank Billings Kellogg

The main reason Kellogg received the Peace Prize was because of his strenuous pursuit of international peace and justice. His faith in the legal arbitration of international disputes resulted in the creation of bilateral treaties with nineteen countries, the most important being the Paris Pact signed in 1928 by Kellogg and Aristide Briand, the French Foreign Minister.

In this pact the premise of a multilateral treaty stating the renunciation of war as an instrument of national policy was put down in black and white for all to see.

Answer: Albert Lutuli

In 1948 the Nationalist Party, who were in control of the South African government at the time, brought forward the policy of "Apartheid" (apartness), and then followed them in the 1950s with the "Pass Laws" to tighten the restrictions on the black community. From 1952 until his death in 1967 Lutuli was president-general of the ANC which, at that time, was a non-violent umbrella organisation for civil disobedience.

Answer: 1938

The Nansen Passport was the first internationally recognised identity cards for refugees issued by the League of Nations. They were the first refugee travel documents and were designed by Fridtjof Nansen in 1922. By 1942 some 52 countries honoured these vital documents allowing the immigration of stateless refugees to countries who wished to give them shelter.

Answer: Community of Peace People

The "Peace People", as it became known, was created in 1976 when a car, driven by a young republican who was being chased by security forces, lost control and drove into the family of Anne Maguire. Six week old Andrew, eight and a half year old Joanne and seven year old Mark died as a result of the crash. Anne Maguire took her own life 41 months later.

It was Anne's sister Mairead Corrigan who went to the local television studio to plead for an end to the senseless carnage that visited the streets of Northern Ireland. Mairead Corrigan, Betty Williams and Ciaran McKeown created the Committee of Peace People in response to the out-pourings of sympathy and anguish coming from the people of Ulster laying the foundations of the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement.

Answer: Jimmy Carter

During his Presidency (1977-1981) Jimmy Carter's mediation, through the Camp David Accords, between the Israeli leader Menachim Begin and the Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat was a great step forward in improving human rights in the Middle East. Since the end of his Presidency Carter has undertaken strenuous conflict resolutions in some of the most dangerous areas in the world. Through his Carter Centre he has highlighted conflicts and possible resolutions to those conflicts for over 20 years.

Answer: Alfred Nobel

Bertha answered an advertisement to become a secretary-housekeeper for Alfred Nobel in 1876; she kept the position for only a week before returning to Vienna and secretly marrying her lover. Bertha kept in correspondence with Nobel right up to his death in 1896, with many believing that it was her pacifist beliefs, as portrayed in her novel "Die Waffen neider!" (Lay down your arms!), that persuaded Nobel to create a Peace Prize.

Answer: Battle of Solferino

The Battle of Solferino was fought in June 1859 between the allied armies of Louis Napoleon III and Victor Emmanual II against the Austrian army of Emperor Franz Joseph I. It is unique as a battle in that it was the last battle of the millennium where the armies were commanded personally by their monarchs. Dunant witnessed the suffering of the wounded as they lay on the battlefield and was horrified by the carnage. From this battle Dunant campaigned for better treatment of the wounded, resulting in the creation of the International Red Cross and the process of forming the Geneva Conventions.

Answer: Robert Cecil

Cecil, the son of the Marquess of Salisbury, the three-time Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, once stated, "It is sometimes said that War is natural to man. It is not so. Peace is the normal condition of mankind in a healthy state. War is a disease and a preventable disease. That is why Peace is the condition of human progress and why all good and intelligent men throughout the ages have put it first of human blessings."