The Nobel Peace Prize
10 December, Oslo celebrates the Nobel Peace Prize with the prize ceremony and a torchlight parade in honour of this year's laureate.
The Nobel Peace Prize 2025
This year's winner
The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to María Corina Machado for her work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.
See the whole announcement
Annual Nobel Peace Prize programme
The Peace Prize Ceremony takes place in Oslo City Hall at 1 pm on 10 December, and is the highlight of the programme. During the award ceremony on 10 December, the laureate usually delivers their Nobel Peace Lecture. Attendance is by invitation only.
A traditional torchlight parade in honour of the laureate is held on the evening of 10 December. The parade ends in front of the Grand Hotel, where the laureate usually greets the parade from the balcony.
The Nobel Peace Center tells intriguing stories about all the Peace Prize laureates. The Nobel Peace exhibition opens to the public in December, and is open until the following autumn season.
Alfred Nobel, Oslo and the Peace Prize
Chemist, engineer, inventor, businessman, and philanthropist Alfred Nobel (1833–1896) built a fortune selling explosives and ammunition and investing in in petroleum companies. Even though he sold weapons, he hoped that his inventions would eventually remove the need for wars entirely.
In 1895, Nobel drew up a will in which his wealth was to be devoted to the annual award of five prizes "to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind" within the fields of chemistry and physics, litterature, economics, medicine and peace.
The will laid down that the Nobel Peace Prize was to be awarded in Norway by a five-member committee appointed by the Norwegian Storting (the legislative assembly). The first Nobel Peace Prize was awarded in 1901, and it is always awarded on December 10th.
Like much else concerning the Nobel Prizes, the reasons why Alfred Nobel picked the Norwegian Parliament to award the Peace Prize remain unclear. Regardless of Nobel's thoughts and intentions, though, Oslo's inhabitants are very proud that their hometown gets to host the Peace Prize ceremony.
The Nobel year in Oslo