A Few Other Nobel Candidates

Tireless campaigners for human rights, long-suffering Chinese dissidents among those passed over

By Nick McMaster, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 9, 2009 2:22 PM CDT

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A Few Other Nobel Candidates — In this undated photo released by V-Day, Dr. Denis Mukwege, center, of the Panzi General Hospital in the city of Bukavu, in eastern Congo is shown surrounded by a number of women and children. (AP Photo/V-Day)

President Obama himself said he was not sure he deserved to win the Nobel Peace Prize, and the Weekly Standard seems to agree. Mary Katherine Ham invites you to consider some of the luminaries who were passed over:

Sima Samar: A Afghan women’s rights activist who kept her schools—the only high schools in the whole country girls were able to attend—open under the Taliban regime.
Ingrid Betancourt: French-Colombian politician held hostage by FARC militants for 6 years.

Denis Mukwege: A doctor who has devoted his life to helping Congolese victims of sexual violence.
Handicap International and Cluster Munition Coalition: Both work tirelessly to remove unexploded landmines around the world.
Hu Jia: Chinese blogger and human rights activist, sentenced last year to 3½ years in prison for “inciting subversion of state power.”
Wei Jingsheng. A Chinese democratic activist who spent 17 years in prison until international pressure forced his release in 1997.

(More Barack Obama stories.)

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