04/02/2026
Most people assume anyone can nominate someone for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Here is the truth. They can't.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee only accepts nominations from a narrow list of qualified individuals:
• Members of national assemblies and governments of sovereign states
• Members of the International Court of Justice
• University professors in history, law, philosophy, theology, and social sciences
• Directors of peace research and foreign policy institutes
• Past Nobel Peace Prize laureates
• Former members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee
Tens of thousands of people worldwide qualify. Most of the world's population does not.
The person who nominated Dr. Hak Ja Han for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize is Dr. Jan Figel.
He is not a random political figure.
Dr. Figel served as the European Union's first-ever Special Envoy for the Promotion of Freedom of Religion or Belief outside the EU, a position created in 2016 at the request of the European Parliament.
He is also a former European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Youth, and former Deputy Prime Minister of Slovakia.
As EU Special Envoy, Figel helped secure the freedom of 25 individuals persecuted for their religion across Pakistan, Sudan, Iran, and Cuba, including a central role in the Asia Bibi case, a Catholic woman facing ex*****on in Pakistan for blasphemy.
He is currently the interim president of FOREF Europe, the Forum for Religious Freedom Europe, and a co-chair of the IRF Roundtable in Washington, D.C.
Figel cited Dr. Han's decades of interfaith dialogue, humanitarian cooperation, Korean Peninsula peacebuilding, and family values advocacy as the basis for his nomination.
This is what a credentialed, independent religious freedom nomination looks like. The nominator has spent his career freeing people from death rows and confronting authoritarian regimes in defense of conscience.
When someone with that record submits your name, it is not a publicity move. It is a professional judgment.