Nobel Peace Prize goes to chemical weapons watchdog

Kim Hjelmgaard, Naila Inayat and Jesse Singal | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Malala Yousafzai passed over for Nobel Peace Prize The 2013 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Many had considered Malala Yousafzai a favorite for the honor.

OPCW is 22nd individual organization to win Nobel Peace Prize

Award made for %27extensive efforts to eliminate chemical weapons%27

Pakistani teen Malala Yousafzai and Denis Mukwege of the Congo were favored

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, or OPCW, is the surprise winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee made the award Friday morning in Oslo for the Hague-based group's "extensive efforts to eliminate chemical weapons." It is the 22nd time that an individual organization has won the award. Last year's prize was scooped by the European Union.

Justifying its decision, the committee said: "The conventions and the work of the OPCW have defined the use of chemical weapons as a taboo under international law. Recent events in Syria, where chemical weapons have again been put to use, have underlined the need to enhance the efforts to do away with such weapons."

However, the committee underlined the point that the award was not directly linked to the group's recent work in Syria, but a result of its long-standing efforts to eradicate the use of chemical weapons that have threatened battlefields since World War One.

There was some light wrist-slapping in the statement, too. "Certain states have not observed the deadline, which was April 2012, for destroying their chemical weapons. This applies especially to the USA and Russia," the committee said.

Analysts were equivocal about the decision.

Paul Schulte, senior visiting fellow in the Centre for Defense Studies at King's College London, said: "It's motivational rather than for what the organization has already achieved in Syria. It's a good thing, I think, because it will improve its legitimacy and standing in the world. But the OPCW has not yet faced a major test."

Abdulwahab Sayed Omar, a Syrian opposition activist based in London, said: "Any effort to eliminate weapons of mass destruction, whether it be chemical or otherwise is an effort worth praising." However, "Nobody in Syria is celebrating this recognition at the moment, because while chemical weapons are a major threat, what are we doing to prevent conventional weapons being used against people on a daily basis?"

Ahmet Uzumcu, the OPCW's director-general, told Norway's NRK broadcaster — the media group predicted, correctly, that the OPCW would win this year's prize — that it is "an acknowledgement of our staff's efforts, who are now deployed in Syria, who have been, in fact, making a very brave effort there to fulfill their mandate." He said also that the award confirmed work the group has done for over a decade.

Speaking in the Hague, Uzumcu said recent events in Syria were a reminder that there was "much work to be done."

It is not clear what the OPCW intends to do with the $1.2 million prize money.

Pakistani teen Malala Yousafzai and Denis Mukwege of the Congo, a gynecologist and surgeon, were favored to win the prize.

Immediately following the announcement, Razi Baloch, 19, a student in Quetta, Pakistan, said: "I feel that Malala never needed a Nobel Peace Prize rather the Peace Prize needed her," adding, "Her courage and determination have made us stand strong against the ills of our society where women are treated as mere objects."

A tweet that was sent out in Malala's name from the Malala Fund's Twitter account congratulated the OPCW on its work.

The OPCW has been working to eradicate chemical weapons for the past 16 years and has carried out thousands of inspections of chemical weapons in over 80 countries. It has 189 members — who fund the group — and was formed in 1997 to enforce the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Syria is expected to be the 190th member of the OPCW when it joins, possibly as early as Monday.

In an amusing twist, the Nobel committee was initially unable to reach the OPCW to inform it of the news.

Other contenders for the annual prize included Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning, the Army private sentenced to 35 years in military prison for leaking classified documents; and Maggie Gobran, the founder of a children's charity in Cairo, sometimes referred to as the 'Mother Teresa' of Egypt's slums.

Kim Hjelmgaard reported from London; Naila Inayat reported from Lahore, Pakistan; Jesse Singal reported from Berlin