2025 Nobel Peace Prize announced — Here's who received it

María Corina Machado Paríska is a Venezuelan politician and public figure, philanthropist, and former member of the National Assembly of Venezuela (2011-2014). She is the founder and former president of the Sumate charitable organization.

She was a presidential candidate in Venezuela during the 2012 elections. Machado is an opposition leader, activist in the democratic movement, and a critic of Nicolás Maduro’s socialist government.

Machado was one of the leading figures in the 2014 Venezuelan protests against Nicolás Maduro's government.

On June 30, 2023, the Venezuelan government banned the opposition politician from holding office for 15 years due to her leadership in anti-government protests.

Biography and political path of María Corina Machado

Machado was born on October 7, 1967, in Caracas, Venezuela. Her father was an entrepreneur associated with the company Sivensa, and her mother is a psychologist.

She grew up as the eldest of four daughters in a Catholic tradition. She graduated from a private school in Venezuela, later attended boarding schools in the United States, and traveled to several European countries. Machado's great-great-grandfather was Eduardo Blanco, a Venezuelan politician and writer, author of the novel "Venezuela Heroica" (1881), who was killed during an uprising against the Venezuelan dictator Juan Vicente Gómez.

Machado graduated from Andrés Bello Catholic University with a degree in industrial engineering and earned a master's degree in finance from the Institute of Advanced Management Studies in Caracas.

In 1992, Machado founded the Atenea Foundation, a charity aimed at helping orphaned and homeless children in Caracas. She worked in the automotive industry, briefly in business, and returned to Caracas in 1993. Machado is divorced and has three children.

Ten years later, she became one of the founders of Sumate, an organization that promotes free and fair elections and conducts election training and monitoring.

In 2010, she was elected to the National Assembly, receiving a record number of votes. In 2014, the regime removed her from office. Machado leads the opposition party Vente Venezuela and, in 2017, helped establish the Soy Venezuela alliance, which unites pro-democracy forces in the country despite political differences.

In 2023, she announced her candidacy for the 2024 presidential elections. When she was barred from participating, she supported the opposition’s alternative candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia.

The opposition mobilized widely and collected systematic documentation confirming her victory in the elections, while the regime declared its own "victory" and tightened control over power.

Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize primarily for her efforts to promote democracy in Venezuela.

What makes the Nobel Prize special

The Nobel Prizes were established according to the will of Swedish inventor and philanthropist Alfred Nobel (1833-1896). His most famous invention was dynamite, which brought him significant profit.

After Nobel's death, his fortune was used to create a fund, the income of which is distributed annually among the most outstanding figures in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace. The first awards were presented in 1901.

Later, a prize in economics was added, established by the Bank of Sweden in the late 1960s.

The prize amount varies depending on the income of the Nobel Foundation. This year, the monetary award for the Nobel Prize is set at 11 million Swedish kronor (approximately $1.05 million).

Each laureate receives the monetary award, a diploma, and a gold medal. The prize can be awarded to individuals, except for the Peace Prize, which can also be awarded to organizations.

Who was nominated for the 2025 Nobel Prize?

This year, 338 candidates were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, including 244 individuals and 94 organizations. This is a significant increase compared to last year.

The largest number of nominations was recorded in 2016, when 376 candidates were nominated.

The deadline for nominations for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize was January 31.

The list of nominees remains secret for 50 years, and self-nominations are not allowed.

Among the possible candidates for this year's Peace Prize, Reuters reported, were several international organizations and human rights activists. These included the UNHCR, UNICEF, the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, and the Sudanese initiative Emergency Response Rooms.

Individual candidates included Hong Kong activist Chow Han-dung, who is under arrest for participating in democratic protests, and Canadian human rights defender Irwin Cotler, known for his work on human rights and combating anti-Semitism. NATO and the International Criminal Court were also mentioned.

Trump sought the award

US President Donald Trump has long been obsessed with receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, but his chances of winning were considered low due to political controversies.

Many countries and organizations nominated Trump for the award, although critics argue that his actions do not meet the criteria of a laureate.

Trump stated that it would be an "insult" if he did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize, claiming that he "ended seven global conflicts." He openly envied former US President Barack Obama, who received the prize in 2009, sarcastically noting that Obama was awarded simply "for winning the election."

Although bookmakers gave Trump decent odds, favorites also included Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Yulia Navalnaya (wife of the late Russian prison-opposition activist Alexei Navalny).

Zelenskyy has been mentioned as a candidate for several years, but Western media reported that his chances are slim, as he is the president of a country at war.

Who received the award last year?

Unlike most Nobel Prizes, which are traditionally awarded and announced in Stockholm, Peace Prize laureates are selected in Oslo by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, an independent five-member body appointed by the Norwegian Parliament.

In 2024, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo, which has fought for global nuclear disarmament for decades.

The organization was founded in 1956 by survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings. Its goal is to urge the Japanese government to actively protect victims' rights and advocate for a complete ban on the use of nuclear weapons.

Members of Nihon Hidankyo work to ensure the world does not forget the consequences of nuclear war. They have collected thousands of eyewitness testimonies, published numerous resolutions and appeals, and participate annually in UN sessions and international peace forums. Their work contributed to the establishment of the so-called "nuclear taboo," a moral principle prohibiting the use of nuclear weapons.

The organization had been repeatedly nominated for the Peace Prize in 1985, 1994, and 2015. Only in 2024 were their efforts recognized at the highest level. Nihon Hidankyo was honored "for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again."

Nobel week 2025

Nobel week began on October 6. The first laureates announced were in medicine and physiology: Americans Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell and Japanese scientist Shimon Sakaguchi, recognized for discovering mechanisms of immune tolerance.

In physics, the winners were John Clarke, Michel Devoret, and John Martinis for research on quantum tunneling and energy quantization in electrical circuits.

The Chemistry Prize went to Susumu Kitagawa (Japan), Richard Robson (UK), and Omar Yaghi (USA) for research in meta-organic chemistry.

The Literature Prize was awarded to Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai "for his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art."

The Nobel Prize in Economics, awarded on behalf of the Swedish Central Bank in honor of Alfred Nobel, will be announced on October 13.

The Nobel Prize award ceremony will take place on December 10 in Oslo.