The Norwegian Nobel Committee
The Nobel Peace Prize for 2010
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize
for 2010 to Liu Xiaobo for his long and non-violent struggle for
fundamental human rights in China. The Norwegian Nobel Committee has
long believed that there is a close connection between human rights and
peace. Such rights are a prerequisite for the “fraternity between
nations” of which Alfred Nobel wrote in his will.
Over the past decades, China has achieved economic advances to which
history can hardly show any equal. The country now has the world’s
second largest economy; hundreds of millions of people have been lifted
out of poverty. Scope for political participation has also broadened.
China’s new status must entail increased responsibility. China is in
breach of several international agreements to which it is a signatory,
as well as of its own provisions concerning political rights. Article
35 of China’s constitution lays down that “Citizens of the People’s
Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of
association, of procession and of demonstration”. In practice, these
freedoms have proved to be distinctly curtailed for China’s citizens.
For over two decades, Liu Xiaobo has been a strong spokesman for the
application of fundamental human rights also in China. He took part in
the Tiananmen protests in 1989; he was a leading author behind Charter
08, the manifesto of such rights in China which was published on the
60th anniversary of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, the 10th of December 2008. The following year, Liu was
sentenced to eleven years in prison and two years’ deprivation of
political rights for “inciting subversion of state power”. Liu has
consistently maintained that the sentence violates both China’s own
constitution and fundamental human rights.
The campaign to establish universal human rights also in China is being
waged by many Chinese, both in China itself and abroad. Through the
severe punishment meted out to him, Liu has become the foremost symbol
of this wide-ranging struggle for human rights in China.
Oslo, October 9, 2009
