On 10th October 2025, Jørgen Watne Frydnes, Chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, announced that the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Maria Corina Machado, a Venezuelan opposition leader, for her “tireless work promoting democratic rights” and her “struggle for a peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy” at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo, Norway.
- She became the first Venezuelan to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2025.
- The Nobel Prize will be presented on 10 December 2025 in in Oslo, Norway, commemorating the death anniversary of Alfred Nobel.
Exam Hints:
- What? Nobel Peace Prize 2025 was announced
- Organiser? Norwegian Nobel Committee
- Laureate: Maria Corina Machado
- Prize Components: 11 million SEK cash
- Award Ceremony: December 10, 2025, in Oslo, Norway
- 2024 Laureate: The Japanese NGO Nihon Hidankyo
- Indian Laureate: Mother Teresa & Kailash Satyarthi
- Total Awards: 106 Nobel Peace Prizes have been awarded to 143 laureates including 20 women.
- Multiple Winners: ICRC (3 times) and UNHCR (2 times)
Winners of Nobel Prize in Literature 2025:
| Nobel Laureate | Awarded for |
|---|---|
| Maria Corina Machado | for her “tireless work promoting democratic rights” and her “struggle for a peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.” |
About Maria Corina Machado:
Role: National Coordinator of Vente Venezuela, a liberal political party she co-founded in 2013, and former Member of the National Assembly (2010-2015).
Contributions: Led efforts for free elections, criticising human rights abuses, and promoting civil society activism in Venezuela.
Awards & Recognition: Named among British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC’s) 100 Most Influential Women (2018), recipient of the Charles T. Manatt Prize (2014), Libertad Cortes de Cádiz (2015), and the Liberal International Freedom Prize (2019).
Political Stance: Advocates for the privatisation of Venezuela’s oil industry, re-engagement with international financial institutions, and economic liberalisation.
About Medal of the Nobel Peace Prize:
Design: The medal was designed by Swedish sculptor and engraver Erik Lindberg.
- Obverse (Front): Features a relief portrait of Alfred Nobel.
- Reverse (Back): Depicts three naked men embracing, symbolizing the international fraternity that Nobel wished to promote through the Peace Prize.
- Inscription: The Latin phrase “Pro pace et fraternitate gentium” translates to “For peace and fraternity among peoples.”
Prize Details:
Components: Each Nobel laureate receives a gold medal, a personal diploma, and a cash award.
Cash Award 2025: The total cash prize for 2025 is 11 million Swedish kronor (SEK), approximately USD 1.2 million.
Facts on the Nobel Peace Prize (1901-2025):
Total Awards: From 1901 to 2024, 106 Nobel Peace Prizes have been awarded to 143 laureates, including 112 individuals and 31 organizations (including multiple awards).
Multiple Winners: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has won the Nobel Peace Prize three times, while the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has received it twice.
Distribution of Prizes
- 72 prizes were awarded to a single laureate.
- 31 prizes were shared by two laureates.
- 3 prizes were shared among three laureates.
Women Laureates: Of the 112 individual laureates, 20 are women.
Years not Awarded: The Nebel Peace prize was not awarded on 19 occasions, 1914–1916, 1918, 1923, 1924, 1928, 1932, 1939–1943, 1948, 1955–1956, 1966–1967, and 1972.
Youngest Laureate: Malala Yousafzai, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 at age 17, is the youngest laureate.
Oldest Laureate: Joseph Rotblat received the prize in 1995 at age 87.
First Woman Laureate: Bertha von Suttner won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1905, becoming the first woman laureate.
Indian Nobel Peace Laureates:
- Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her humanitarian work. She was born in 1910 in Uskup (now North Macedonia) and became an Indian citizen in 1951.
- Kailash Satyarthi, the first native-born Indian Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was awarded in 2014 alongside Malala Yousafzai for their efforts against child exploitation and for promoting the right to education.
2024 Nobel Peace Prize: The Japanese Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots group of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize.
About the Nobel Prize:
Origin: The Nobel Prize was established using the fortune of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor and industrialist.
Administration: The prize is managed and overseen by the Nobel Foundation, based in Stockholm, Sweden.
Purpose: It recognizes outstanding contributions and discoveries that provide significant benefits to humanity.
Fields: Since 1901, the Nobel Prize has been awarded in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace.
Economic Sciences: In 1968, the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel was introduced as a sixth category.
