Edward Snowden for the Nobel Peace Prize

Today we nominate Mr Edward Snowden to the Nobel Peace Prize. Please read more here edwardsnowdennomination2017-01-30 or below.

To the Members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee:

We write to nominate Edward Joseph Snowden for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Alfred Nobel intended that the Peace Prize would promote disarmament. Today, militaries around the world place ever greater emphasis on engagement in cyberspace, with its almost unlimited possibilities for spying, disruption, and destruction.  No one has sounded the alarm more eloquently than Edward Snowden as regards military encroachment upon the world’s systems of electronic communication, and how such encroachment violates rights of privacy and threatens the continued existence of democracy.

Edward Snowden became one of history’s great whistleblowers when he revealed to leading journalists that the United States conducts all-encompassing mass surveillance around the world. In a conscientious and responsible manner, he exposed a system in which the phone, internet and other communications of individuals and whole nations are intercepted and permanently stored. Snowden insisted that it must be up to an informed global citizenry to decide whether they wish to live in a world in which they are constantly monitored by the United States military. With courage and careful judgment, he initiated a global debate about surveillance systems that operate beyond democratic control and the rule of law. Many states are now trying to build up similar capacities as the US. Snowden´s work has permitted an open and democratic debate, globally, about the risks of cyberwarfare and global surveillance.

Snowden’s contribution is of particular importance today, when the American military’s capacities for interception and disruption in cyberspace are under the authority of a new commander-in-chief.  President Donald J. Trump has expressed little intention to respect legal or ethical limits on the use of his power.  It is therefore a particularly suitable moment to award the Nobel Prize for Peace to Edward Snowden.

Yours truly,

Jens Holm, Member of Parliament, Sweden

Annika Lillemets, Member of Parliament, Sweden

Wiwi-Anne Johansson, Member of Parliament, Sweden

Carl Schlyter, Member of Parliament, Sweden

Lotta Johnsson Fornarve, Member of Parliament, Sweden

Amineh Kakabaveh, Member of Parliament, Sweden

Valter Mutt, Member of Parliament, Sweden

Daniel Sestrajcic, Member of Parliament, Sweden

Annika Hirvonen Falk, Member of Parliament, Sweden

Hans Linde, Member of Parliament, Sweden