Crossroads Ethiopia

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The Nobel Mystery

SDLP leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner has passed away

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In the Name of Peace - Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland

This episode is a post-film talk after the screening of the film "In the Name of Peace" - a documentary about Northern Irland and the Good Friday Agreement and the Nobel Peace Prize to David Trimble and John Hume.

Maurice Fitzpatrick, Director of In the Name of Peace. Annette Groth, journalist, correspondent in UK & Ireland in the 80s/90s. Dr. Henrik Syse, member of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, and Research Professor, Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO). Sarah McGrath, Northern Ireland Director, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Moderated by the former Executive Director of the Nobel Peace Center, Liv Tørres.

Women moving forward in peacekeeping

Malala and her uniform 

The Good News of the Week: This week marks the 75th anniversaries of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The anniversaries are commemorated around the world, while at the same time, a global ban on nuclear weapons is moving closer to its goal. Only 7 countries are needed in order for the ban to take effect.

The time was 11.02, August 9 1945, when the atomic bomb Fat Man was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. All life within a kilometre radius was obliterated, and the clock pictured above, which was on display in the Nobel Peace Prize Exhibition at the Nobel Peace Center in 2017, stopped. More than 200 000 people died in the two US nuclear attacks on Japan. Survivors, and people deprived of family-members and friends, have fought for a ban on nuclear weapons ever since. But now, they are receiving support from more and more states around the world, and a ban on nuclear weapons is finally within reach. In July, two new countries, Botswana and Fiji, ratified the UN Treaty banning nuclear weapons, and on August 6 Ireland, Niue, and Nigeria followed suit. 43 of the world’s states have joined the ban so far. Once 50 states have ratified the treaty, it will enter into force. 

, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, hope that the magic number 50 will be reached before the end of the year.

is the leading civil society organization in the work to bring a ban on nuclear weapons under international law. In December 2017, ICAN received the Nobel Peace Prize for its “work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons.” In June same year, 122 UN member states had signed the proposed treaty banning nuclear weapons. But in order for the Treaty to enter into force, it must also be ratified by 50 member states. No NATO country has so far joined the ban, not even Norway. Several municipalities in Norway have pledged their support for the ban, including the capitol city of Oslo.

On Friday 7 August Borgen released a peace dove, from the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, to mark the 75th anniversaries.

Since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, several countries have acquired nuclear weapons, and today nine countries have a total of 14 000 nuclear weapons. When the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to ICAN in 2017, it pointed out that the danger of using these weapons is greater today, than in a very long time. The Nobel Committee emphasized that a ban in itself would not be sufficient in abolishing nuclear weapons, and that the Peace Prize was intended as an invitation to the world’s nuclear powers to enter into dialogue and negotiations with the intent to gradually abolish all nuclear weapons.

Even if we get a ban, the world will not be free of nuclear weapons. But the norm will be strengthened. We already see that the view on nuclear weapons is changing, says ICAN’s Tuva Widskjold.

"Financial institutions are withdrawing from the nuclear weapons industry, and the pressure on nuclear weapon states to enter into dialogue on disarmament is increasing. It is us humans who have created nuclear weapons, and it is we who can abolish them. It comes down to political will." 

… Hibakusha is the Japanese word for survivor of the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In December 2017, a group of hibakushas from Japan came to the Nobel Peace Center to visit the Nobel Peace Prize Exhibition Ban the Bomb on ICAN and the fight against nuclear weapons.

Every Friday at noon, the Nobel Peace Center will release a peace dove together with “The good news of the week.”The dove is released from a window at the Nobel Peace Center, situated on the City Hall Square. As the dove crosses the square, the John Lennon song Give Peace a Chance will play from the bell towers.

Moving closer to a ban on Nuclear Weapons

The 2019 Nobel Peace Prize Exhibition is a portrait of this year´s Peace Prize Laureate PM Abiy Ahmed Ali, and Ethiopia´s ongoing process towards peace and democracy.

The exhibition is a portrait of the Laureate himself, but it is also a close-up on change, hope and challenges in his country. The Prime Minister of Ethiopia was awarded the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize for his reforms in his country and for his efforts to create peace with neighbouring country Eritrea.

Only days after the announcement of this year´s Laureate, award-winning photographer Finbarr O`Reilly traveled to Ethiopia, on assignment by the Nobel Peace Center, to create a series of photographs of the country and the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.

"I had very limited time with the Laureate—just a few minutes to make a handful of portraits. So, I focused on documenting some of the political changes implemented by the Laureate, and how he has positioned himself to lead his country as it heads towards elections scheduled for next year," said O´Reilly when asked about the Nobel-assignment.

O´Reilly has captured some of the women assigned to power in Abiy´s new government and how the changes inflicts the society in Addis Ababa. He has also visited the disputed areas of the North were traces of the conflict with Eritrea still lingers.

In November 2018, Dr. Abiy appointed lawyer and women’s rights activist Meaza Ashenafi as President of the Federal Supreme Court of Ethiopia.

Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa has a thriving photograph scene which is also depicted in one part of the exhibition with photographs captured by Ethiopia´s seven highest ranking photographers, curated by Aida Muluneh. The images show the transition the county has gone through. 

A part of the exhibition shows works by Ethiopian photographers from Addis Photo Fest archives, co-curated by Aida Muluneh, Desta for Africa Creative Consulting Plc (DFA).

The Exhibition is supported by the City of Oslo, 5th element group and Canon (print&imaging partner).

The Nobel Mystery

Moving closer to a ban on Nuclear Weapons

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