They can, yes. It is worth noting that some recipients were convicted for various “crimes” in their home countries, such as the Chinese human rights activist who won it in 2010.
Plus, five words: Henry Fucking War Criminal Kissinger. 1973.
Can a person who is a convicted felon/ rapist even get nominated for the Nobel Peace Price? Extra points if you can ELI5 that.
Submitted 15 hours ago by Patnou@lemmy.world to [deleted]
Comments
neidu3@sh.itjust.works 14 hours ago
Kolanaki@pawb.social 14 hours ago
Can someone please ELI5 the Kissinger hate? The only thing I know about the guy was from parodies of him in cartoons I saw growing up, and I always assumed he was like a Jewish Ghandi.
neidu3@sh.itjust.works 14 hours ago
He was basically in charge of the Cambodian bombing campaign, calling out which targets were to be bombed without much of any intelligence indicating that it was a valid military target.
Also, he was closely tied to the Johnson administration and suddenly he was offered a position in the Nixon administration. While not proven there are a lot of suspicious indicators that he may have intentionally botched the peace negotiations in Vietnam in an effort to give Johnson poor standing before the election so that Nixon could be the one ending the war. In other words; If true he intentionally pr longed the war in return for a position in the Nixon cabinet.
muix@lemmy.sdf.org 4 hours ago
Apepollo11@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
Maybe closer to the version of Gandhi from the Civilization games than the real one…
The views on him are mixed depending on exactly what lines you think can reasonably be crossed for the sake of protecting America’s interests.
In Kissinger’s tenure as Secretary of State, there were very few lines that he considered uncrossable - extending into tacit endorsement of actions that are accurately classed as war crimes.
The carpet-bombing of Cambodia, the peacetime kidnapping and murder of a Chilean general, actual military support for a genocide campaign in what is now Bangladesh - all this and more.
njm1314@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
If there was a war crime that took place in the latter half of the 20th century he was basically involved in some way.
crank0271@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
You’ve already received some good answers, but Rolling Stone had something to say about him when he finally stopped committing atrocities: rollingstone.com/…/henry-kissinger-war-criminal-d…
greedytacothief@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 hours ago
Not an expert, but I believe he is part of the reason the Vietnam war continued. Lots of people died because the US has to win. I think he also okayed the indiscriminate bombing they did. Also he’s a slimy politician.
K1nsey6@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
If people like Obama and Kissinger can win a Nobel Peace Prize, the prize is meaningless.
P00ptart@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
Obama got it before the drone bombings. It was more of a hope kinda thing but the hope didn’t turn out that great. And really just indirectly led us to vaguely gesture around
null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 hours ago
They can and do take prizes off laureates if they go bad later.
sploosh@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
Obama not fighting for his Supreme Court appointment is a lot more than indirectly responsible for all of this. He abdicated his duty to execute the office and fucked us all in doing so.
0_o7@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 hours ago
The Nobel prize itself was created to downplay atrocities for fame, so yes, you can get it no matter what.
It’s fulfilling it’s goal.
ianhclark510@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 hours ago
of course they can, Nelson Mandela won one, and he was famous for his time in prison
SpookyLights@lemmy.ca 7 hours ago
Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for opposing South Africa’s apartheid regime, which enforced racial segregation and discrimination.
Op asked “if someone who was a convicted felon/rapist could they be awarded the nobel peace prize?.”
These two are things are not the same, and just to make sure we’re both on the same page, they’re not the same because one of them went to prison as a form of protest against an unjust system. The other raped some people.
null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 hours ago
I think the point you might have missed is, a conviction shouldn’t exclude you from receiving a prize, because you may have been convicted by a corrupt court.
I’m not saying Trump was wrongly convicted, just that a conviction shouldn’t exclude you in and of itself.
TheLeadenSea@sh.itjust.works 5 hours ago
A felon just means someone who broke the law, akaik. Law != morality.
HootinNHollerin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 hours ago
foggy@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
Yes
It’s not very different from John bonomassa being named best guitarist by rolling stone
Who?
Exactly.
db2@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
They’re supposed to not qualify for high office either so probably these days. Asking for a friend?
667@lemmy.radio 14 hours ago
In the US at least, the constitutional requirements for being elected to the presidency do not prevent felons from being elected, and there are good arguments for this. A weaponized judicial system can be used to oust or prevent political opponents from gaining the presidency.
FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au 8 hours ago
A weaponized judicial system can be used to oust or prevent political opponents from gaining the presidency.
Literally what the last 4 years were all about for the Democrats lol.
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
Funnily enough, he DOES qualify for a jail cell. 34 times actually.
aeternum@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 hours ago
If there were any justice in the world, it would be significantly higher than 34.
P00ptart@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
It’s almost a prerequisite now.
FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website 14 hours ago
Can? Sure. Should? No.
It’s worthwhile remembering though that the people who get it aren’t all saints. Although rape and sexual assault are particularly distasteful items to have on the resume, if the person repented and then contributed meaningfully to lasting world peace, they shouldn’t automatically be stricken off the list.
So those admittedly distastefully liberal guidelines should exclude any current resident of the White House then.
I think they should ignore any person who is so publicly thirsty for it. It’s a prize you get, not one you ask for.
It’s unnerving having to read that the US ally Norway feels like they need to prepare for retaliatory tariff action if the independent committee for the award, that only ended up in Oslo by a quirk of Scandinavian history, doesn’t award the prize to 47. Sad.
rumschlumpel@feddit.org 14 hours ago
Many past peace price winners were leaders in armed conflicts, and war is dirty business. So I assume the rules on crimes aren’t that strict.
aramis87@fedia.io 11 hours ago
It's the reason a felon can take office in the government. Otherwise, it would be easy to "convict" someone you considered a threat.
cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 hours ago
I lost what little faith I had in the Nobel Peace Prize when Obama won it — and I liked Barack Obama, I voted for him both times, but I didn’t think “up and coming politician”/“first Black president” really qualified him, and the general feeling around the time was “well we hope he does good for peace in the world.” So… you give him a prize that is probably better suited to someone else, hoping he does what you want in the future?
Regarding Trump being a felon, I’m more concerned that we don’t let felons vote, but we’ll let a felon be president. Make that make sense.
SlartyBartFast@sh.itjust.works 2 hours ago
I remember he was president for like two weeks and then got the Nobel Peace Prize, I was a bit baffled