BACKGROUND: Previous winners of the Nobel Peace Prize since 1998

Oct 9, 2009, 9:16 GMT

   Stockholm - The Nobel Peace Prize is regarded as the top award for efforts towards a more peaceful world and the only Nobel award that can be given to organizations as well as individuals. The award is handed out by a committee of the Norwegian parliament.

   Prominent laureates included Mother Teresa (1979), the Dalai Lama (1989) and Nelson Mandela (1993). The winners since 1998, including the citations given by the academy, were:

2008 - Martti Ahtisaari, Finnish ex-president and veteran peace broker was awarded the prize, with the Nobel Committee citing his efforts to solve conflicts on several continents and over three decades.

   2007 - Former US Vice-president Al Gore and the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - 'for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.'

   2006 - Economic expert Muhammad Yunus and founder of the Grameen Bank, Bangladesh, and the Grameen Bank - 'for their efforts to create economic and social development from below.'

   2005 - The United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, and IAEA General Secretary Mohamed ElBaradei - 'for their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest possible way.'

   2004 - Wangari Muta Maathai, Kenya - 'for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace.'

   2003 - Shirin Ebadi, Iran - 'for her efforts for democracy and human rights. She has focused especially on the struggle for the rights of women and children.'

   2002 - Former US President Jimmy Carter - 'for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.'

   2001 - The United Nations, and former UN General-Secretary Kofi Annan of Ghana, - 'for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world.'

   2000 - Former President of South Korea Kim Dae-Jung - 'for his work for democracy and human rights in South Korea and in East Asia in general, and for peace and reconciliation with North Korea in particular.'

   1999 - Doctors without Borders (Medecins sans frontieres), Geneva - 'in recognition of the organization's pioneering humanitarian work on several continents.'

   1998 - John Hume and David Trimble, Great Britain - 'for their efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict in Northern Ireland.'