Press release from the Nobel Foundation

Information to the media from the Nobel Foundation

27 October 2022

For several decades, the Nobel Foundation’s starting point has been to invite all countries with diplomatic representation in Sweden to the Nobel Prize award ceremony, where we celebrate the laureates’ contributions to science, literature and peace. This year, however, the Nobel Foundation has decided to follow the Swedish and European diplomatic policy of not inviting Russia and Belarus because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Although Sweden and other European countries do not yet have any corresponding diplomatic policy regarding Iran, the issue is still evolving and we believe that − given the serious and escalating situation − Iran’s ambassador should not be invited to the Nobel Prize award ceremony.

Nobel Foundation

The Nobel Foundation is a private foundation established in 1900 on the basis of the will of Alfred Nobel and the founding statutes promulgated in connection with the will. Its primary purpose is to ensure that the intentions of the will of Alfred Nobel are fulfilled. The Foundation is responsible for ensuring that the assets made available for awarding the Nobel Prize are managed in such a way as to safeguard the economic base of the Prize in a long-term perspective and guarantee the independence of the prize-awarding institutions in their work of selecting Laureates. The Nobel Foundation is also entrusted with managing and carefully developing the trademarks and intangible assets that have been built up during the more than century-long history of the Nobel Prize.

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