Blue Diamond Society’s Sunil Babu Pant Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

Here’s something worthy of a share. 

Nepali gay rights activist and the first openly gay politician Sunil Babu Pant has been nominated for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. The 42 year old founder of Nepal’s Blue Diamond Society has been campaigning for rights of lesbians, gays, bi-sexual and transgender (LGBTs) and is also largely responsible for the 2007 Supreme Court ruling which led the Nepal government to grant equal status to sexual minorities. Having said that – there are still frequent news reports regarding the failure of the state in granting sexual minorities with citizenship cards and official documentation. Poor implementation – kinda shucks!

This year a total of 278 individuals and organizations have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize! A record high for the prize! Congratulations to Mr Pant for the nomination!

For those wondering about how one is actually nominated for the prize – have a read below!

According to the statutes of the Nobel Foundation, a nomination is considered valid if it is submitted by a person who falls within one of the following categories:

• Members of national assemblies and governments of states
• Members of international courts
• University rectors; professors of social sciences, history, philosophy, law and theology; directors of peace research institutes and foreign policy institutes
• Persons who have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
• Board members of organizations that have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
• Active and former members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee; (proposals by members of the Committee to be submitted no later than at the first meeting of the Committee after February 1)
• Former advisers to the Norwegian Nobel Committee