Nobel Peace Prize 2013 awarded to OPCW for extensive efforts to eliminate chemical weapons

The Nobel Peace Prize 2013 was awarded to Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) “for its extensive efforts to eliminate chemical weapons”.

The OPCW is the body overseeing destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons.

The Hague-based OPCW was established to enforce the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention.

It recently sent inspectors to carry out the dismantling of Syria’s stockpile of chemical weapons.

The watchdog picks up a gold medal and 8 million Swedish kronor ($1.25 million) as winner of the most coveted of the Nobel honors.

Pakistani schoolgirl campaigner Malala Yousafzai and gynaecologist Denis Mukwege of the Democratic Republic of Congo had been tipped as favorites to take the award.

Others who had been listed as contenders were Chelsea Manning (formerly Bradley Manning), the US soldier convicted of giving classified documents to WikiLeaks and Maggie Gobran, an Egyptian computer scientist who abandoned her academic career to become a Coptic Christian nun and founded the charity Stephen’s Children.

But an hour before Friday’s announcement, Norway’s public broadcaster reported the award would go to the OPCW.

The 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention has contributed to the destruction of nearly 80% of the world’s chemical weapons stockpile.