Nobel Laureates Nominate International Peace Research Association and Prof. Matt Meyer for 2026 Nobel Peace Prize
NOBEL LAUREATES, 26 Jan 2026
Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate – TRANSCEND Media Service
Nomination Letter for 2026 Nobel Peace Prize
Earlier Winners Criticize 2025 Award to Venezuela’s Machado
19 Jan 2026 – Two Nobel Peace Prize winners and representatives or successors to additional Nobel laureates have nominated the International Peace Research Association (IPRA) and Professor Matt Meyer, its Secretary General Emeritus, for the 2026 Nobel Prize. Mairead Corrigan Maguire, a Northern Ireland leader of Peace People, a joint Catholic-Protestant group, was the 1976 awardee (along with cofounder Betty Williams); Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, the Argentinian who was brutalized as a political prisoner by a military junta and led a peace organization, won in 1980.
The joint nomination comes amidst growing controversy over the 2025 Prize awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. Last week, Machado “gifted” her medal to President Donald Trump, earning a rebuke from the Nobel Committee that the prize “cannot be revoked, shared, or transferred to others.” In December, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange sued the Nobel Foundation for turning “an instrument of peace into an instrument of war” by bestowing the award on Machado.
Maguire joined Assange’s lawsuit, and Pérez Esquivel co-signed an Open Letter to Machado, castigating her for supporting U.S. military and economic warfare against her own country. The Norwegian Peace Council, which hosts the annual Oslo Torchlight Procession honoring the Peace Laureate, boycotted the event this year, vociferously denouncing the Machado award as “Trump-friendly” and “Israel-friendly,” especially after the Gaza genocide. Two of their prominent leaders co-sponsored the IPRA/Meyer nomination.
The International Peace Research Association, founded in 1964 and now led by a gender-balanced, Global South majority, has organized 30 global and hundreds of regional peace congresses on every continent, promoted peace proposals for conflicts from Palestine to Russia/Ukraine, Sudan, and the Congo. The worldwide network has developed practical policies for sustainable peace based on democracy, Indigenous peoples’ and minorities’ rights, gender equality, participatory peacebuilding, press freedom, and social justice. IPRA, a UN nongovernment organization, was awarded the 1989 UNESCO Prize for Peace Education. During the last eight years, under the co-leadership of Professor Matt Meyer, the association has developed a global peace studies and peace research movement, based on intercultural cooperation and equality between continents and civilizations worldwide.
Professor Matt Meyer, Senior Research Scholar of the University of Massachusetts/Amherst Resistance Studies Initiative, holds degrees in history, education, and psychology. He has authored or edited over a dozen books and hundreds of book chapters and articles, covering peace-building strategies, philosophies, and movements, including Pan-African peace initiatives, decolonization, combating white supremacy, educating for peace, and unity-building. The late South African anti-apartheid leader Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the 1984 Nobel laureate, and Professor Meyer enjoyed a long history of collaboration, including convening a major global peace conference in 2014 at Cape Town’s City Hall, and joint advocacy for prison reform and the release of political prisoners worldwide. Forewords and endorsements of Professor Meyer’s books have included praise from Tutu; Zambia’s former President Dr. Kenneth Kaunda; South African Ambassador Thandi Luthuli (daughter of 1960 Nobel Peace laureate Chief Albert Luthuli); South African peace activist, former parliamentarian, and granddaughter of Mohandas Gandhi, Chancellor Ela Gandhi; and distinguished U.S. author Maya Angelou.
Regarding her nomination, Nobel laureate Maguire said, “In the spirit of Nobel Laureate Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday we just celebrated, it is especially fitting to honor lifelong peacemaker Matt Meyer and the historic IPRA that has spread the field of peace studies and peace education across the planet.” Noting the support for this nomination from an unusual array of peace laureates and leaders from across Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East, Maguire added that “awarding IPRA and Meyer in 2026 will realign the Nobel Peace Prize with its intended mission and history of celebrating true peacemakers whose work is rooted in advocacy of justice and human rights.” Nobel awardee Pérez Esquivel explained, “Professor Meyer is a natural coalition builder who has continually provided crucial tools for both yesterday’s and today’s peace activists.” Citing IRPA’s and Meyer’s roles in helping to dismantle apartheid, Archbishop Tutu’s eldest daughter, Thandeka Tutu-Gxashe, who leads several Tutu-legacy organizations, said, “I would be honored to put my name to this awesome petition.”
Though multiple laureates rarely nominate or endorse a candidate, a long list of prominent peace advocates have signed onto this nomination letter. This includes leaders of several Nobel-winning organizations, such as the 1910 Nobel laureate International Peace Bureau, the world’s largest and oldest peace organization; Palestinian educator Joyce Ajlouny, longtime CEO of the Quaker-based, 1947 Nobel awardee American Friends Service Committee; former Finnish President Tarja Halonen, member of the Council of Women World Leaders; and Dr. Vappu Tuulikki Taipale, former Finnish Health Minister and Co-President of the 1985 Nobel-winning International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. info@peacepeople.com
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Mairead Corrigan Maguire, co-founder of Peace People, is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment. She won the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize for her work for peace in Northern Ireland. Her book, The Vision of Peace, (edited by John Dear with a foreword by Desmond Tutu and a preface by the Dalai Lama) is available from www.wipfandstock.com. She lives in Belfast, Northern Ireland. See: www.peacepeople.com.
Peace People began in 1976 as a protest movement against the ongoing violence in Northern Ireland. Its three founders were Mairead Maguire, Betty Williams and Ciaran McKeown. Over 100,000 people were involved in the initial movement and two of the founders, Mairead and Betty, received the Nobel Peace Prize for that year. Since its inception, the organization has been committed to building a just, peaceful society through nonviolent means – a society based on respect for each individual, and that has at its core the highest standards of human and civil rights. www.peacepeople.com
Tags: IPRA, Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Prize, Nobel Prizes
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 26 Jan 2026.
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