Celebrating student activism for 25 years

Youth is the parents who accept their children
Youth is the freedom of all political prisoners
Youth is the end of authoritarian regimes
Youth is an opportunity to return home one day
Youth is sending Putin to prison
Youth is never to say the words «shelling» and «bomb shelters» again
Youth is Ukrainian schoolchildren, who will finally have their prom
Youth is a free UkraineYouth is us.
And we will certainly win
- DOXA Magazine 2023

14 laureates

13 countries

How it started

The Student Peace Prize was an idea that came from Sigvart Voss Eriksen and Gisle Bråstein a late night at Studentsamfundet in Trondheim in the fall of 1998. The editor at thetime in Under Dusken and the Foundation leader, Noralv Pedersen, remembers the two running into the Dusken office and throwing out the idea of an own peace prize to students. They questioned why the Nobel Peace Prize often went to presidents and leaders, but very rarely to students and young people who were actually at the front line. Already on the 12thof March the upcoming year 1999, the first Student Peace Prize was awarded to Antero Benedito da Silva from East Timor together with the organization he was leading, East Timor Student Solidarity Council (ETSSC). They were awarded the Prize for their nonviolent struggle for democracy and independence from the brutal Indonesian occupation.

How is a winner selected?

Even though the Student Peace Prize is handed out during the ISFiT Festival, the prize is handed out on behalf of all Norwegian students. The prize is administraded by the Secretariat of the Student Peace Prize. The election of who will be awarded the prize is a process of two independent committees: The Nomination Committee and the Peace Prize Committee. Anyone can nominate students and student organizations they meandeserve the Student Peace Prize!

The Nomination Committee is responsible for providing the Peace Prize Committee with the information they need to choose a laureate. This is done through a final report with ashort list of thoroughly researched candidates. The Nomination Committee accomplishes this task by acquiring nominations from worldwide and in different contexts. The committee comprises six students from Norwegian institutions of higher education. There is no requirement to be enrolled in specificfields of study.

The Nomination Committee of 2025 consists of leader Astrid Sofie Festøy and members Johanna Knivsberg, Ingrid Theminda Larsen, Kristine Sandtrøen og Erica Homme.
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A new laureate is selected by the Peace Prize Committee, which consists of student members and expert members. The Committe is led by the leader of SAIH and leader of NSO. The decision is based on the report presented by the Nomination Committee.

The Peace Prize Committee of 2025 consisted of leader Selma Bratsberg (Leader of SAIH), assistant leader Kaja Ingdal Hovdenak (Leader of NSO), Studentmembers Dalin Malek, Sofie Karlgård, Nora Rymoen Houidi, Karoline Hjelmtvedt Hermansen and expert members Erik Fosse (CEO NORWAC), Lisa Knutsen Sivertsen (Director of Human Rights and Welfare NORAD), Torunn Tryggestad (Vice-Director PRIO) and Linn Stalsberg (Sociologist and Author).