The Black Lives Matter movement has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize

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Norwegian MP Petter Eide nominated the global movement “for their fight against racism and racial violence,” he wrote in his official nomination documents obtained by CNN.

“BLM’s call for systemic change has spread around the world, forcing other countries to grapple with racism within their own societies,” he said.

The Black Lives Matter protest movement, revived in the days after an unarmed George Floyd was murdered by police in Minneapolis last May, continues to shed light on what it calls systemic racism and police brutality from the small American cities to the urban centers.
The group, which started with a hashtag in 2012 after Trayvon Martin’s shot dead in Florida, has grown into a social juggernaut. It has changed the way people talk about police brutality and inequality.
While there is no way of knowing exactly how big the movement has grown, the organization has branched out with chapters around the world and organized rallies, boycotts, and other actions in the United States.

Online is what many have used to spread the message against police violence. And worldwide it is used by many to show solidarity with black people.

A global effort to combat inequality

Eide, who has represented the Socialist Left party in parliament since 2017, told CNN that he saw in Black Lives Matter a “legacy of both the civil rights movement in America and the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa.”

“The Norwegian Nobel Committee has always recognized a strong link between racial justice and peace,” said Eide

In 1964 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. the prize for “his non-violent struggle for civil rights for the African American population,” according to the Nobel Prize website.
Other Nobel Peace Prizes have been associated with the South African anti-apartheid movement of the 1960s to 1990s, including those of Nelson Mandela and Frederik Willem de Klerk, jointly awarded in 1993 for the country’s transition from a system of racial segregation.
Rioters breached Capitol security on Wednesday. This was the police response last year when they were black protesters on the streets of DC

Eide, who held the position of Secretary General of Amnesty International Norway in the 2000s, said he received multiple emails and messages following his announcement of the nomination.

“People are sending me a message that BLM is a violent organization,” he said. “I condemn all forms of violence. However, these arguments were the same when Martin Luther King received the award in 1964, or when Mandela received it in 1993.”

“It’s not a strong argument,” he added. “If some elements of the movement may have been violent, that’s no reason to blame the entire movement.”

A 2020 report from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project found that approximately 93% of the protests against racial justice in the US since George Floyd’s death have been peaceful and non-destructive.
“We have the largest social movement in global history. Today we are nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. People are waking up to our worldwide call for racial justice and an end to economic injustice, environmental racism and white supremacy.” , “the Black Lives Matter movement tweeted on Friday. “We’re just starting.”

Any politician serving at the national level can submit nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize. They are only allowed 2,000 words to explain their case.

The deadline for submitting the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 is February 1. The winner will be chosen in October, with the awards ceremony scheduled for December 10.

CNN’s Leah Asmelash, Sara Sidner and Mallory Simon contributed to this report.

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