The Founder of the Nobel Peace Prize

In the 1980's, Alfred Nobel who was Swedish donated his fortune to the Nobel Prizes. He dedicated the award to " the person who shall 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". 

The United Nations and its Secretary- General Kofi Annan were chosen "for their work for a better organised and more peaceful world.."

The First Peace Prize

Henry Dunant, founder of the Red Cross. shared the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901 with Frederic Passy,  a leading international pacifist of the time. In addition to humanitarian efforts and peace movements, the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded for work in a wide range of fields including advocacy of human rights, mediation of international conflicts and arms control.

Number of Prizes

The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to 120 Laureates- 97 times to individuals and 23 times to organisations.

Of the 97 individuals awarded Nobel Peace Prize, 12 are woman

Organisations can win the award, two examples are the Red Cross and the Amnesty International

More information can be found at  http://nobelprize.org/ 

Imaginery Story

Imagine that your mother or father arrives home from work one day and tells you that the police are about to arrive to arrest the whole family, because of your family’s religious beliefs.  You are told to pack a small backpack and be ready in 2 minutes. A family friend drives you overland to Darwin where you climb aboard a yacht. Your parents hand over thousands of dollars in cash. Six weeks later the yacht leaves you on a Japanese beach.  Police arrive and take you to a detention centre which is prison and home to refugees like yourself from various parts of the world, all speaking different languages. Only a few other people speak English.  The guards, canteen staff, doctor etc. all speak Japanese.  Your parents tell you that they are applying for refugee status in Japan, which means you will be allowed to live in the country, go to school there and eventually get a job. 

1.      What would you pack in your backpack?

-          Phone,  clothes, money, iPod, toiletries

2.      What would you miss most if you had to leave your home, your school, Australia?

-          Family, friends, my dog, freedom

3.      What would be some of the problems of living in a detention centre in a foreign country?

-          You would not understand what everyone around you is talking about; you would not know how they live their normal life so you wouldn’t be able to fit in.

4.      What would be the biggest challenges for you if you and your family were accepted as refugees?

-          Learning the language, making new friends, learning the way of life

5.      Why is this ‘imagine’ story a very unlikely one?

-          It is unlikely because in Australia no one is judged or disrespected based on their religion.

Refugees

1) Are outside their country of nationality or their usual country of residence
2) are unable or unwilling to return to that country due to a well founded fear of being prosecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationalilty, membership of a particular social group or polictical opinion.

United Nations

Article 1: Right to equality before the law

Article 2: In this declaration everyone is entitled to all rights and freedoms, without difference of race, colour, sex, religion, language..

Article 3: Everyone has the right to live in freedom and safety
Article 4: Slavery is prohibited in all forms

Article 5: No one has the right to torture someone

Article 7: Right to equality

Article 8: Right to remedy by compontent tribunal

Articke: 15: RIght to nationataly

Article 16: Right to marriage and family

Article 18: Freedom of belief and religion