The Black Lives Matter movement has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize

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Norwegian MP Petter Eide named the global movement “for its fight against racism and racially motivated violence,” he wrote in his official nomination papers, obtained by CNN.

“BLM’s call for systemic change has spread around the world, forcing other countries to tackle racism within their own societies,” he said.

The Black Lives Matter protest movement, rekindled in the days following the death of unarmed George Floyd by police in Minneapolis last May, continues to shed light on what it calls systemic racism and brutality policewoman from small American towns to urban centers.

The group, which started with a hashtag in 2012 after Trayvon Martin’s gunshot death in Florida, has grown into a social juggernaut. It has changed the way people talk about police brutality and inequality.

While there is no way of knowing exactly how big the movement is, the organization has branched out with chapters all over the world and has staged rallies, boycotts and other actions across United States.

Online, this is what many have used to spread the message against police brutality. And around the world, it is used by many to show solidarity with black people.

A global effort to fight inequalities

Eide, who has represented the Socialist Left Party in parliament since 2017, told CNN he sees Black Lives Matter as a “legacy of the civil rights movement in America and the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa.”

“The Norwegian Nobel Committee has always recognized a strong link between racial justice and peace,” said Eide

In 1964, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. received the award for “his nonviolent struggle for the civil rights of the African American population,” according to the Nobel Prize website.

Other Nobel Peace Prizes were associated with the South African anti-apartheid movement from the 1960s to the 1990s, including those of Nelson Mandela and Frederik Willem de Klerk, jointly awarded in 1993 for the nation’s transition from a system of racial segregation.

Rioters breached the security of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. It was the police response when there were black protesters on the streets of DC last year.

Eide, who served as Amnesty International Norway’s secretary general in the 2000s, said he received several emails and messages following the announcement of his appointment.

“People tell me that BLM is a violent organization,” he said. “I condemn all kinds of violence. However, these arguments were the same when Martin Luther King received the award in 1964, or when Mandela received it in 1993 ”.

“It’s not a strong argument,” he added. “If some elements of the movement may have been violent, this is not a reason to blame the whole movement.”

A 2020 report from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project showed that approximately 93% of racial justice protests in the United States since the death of George Floyd have been peaceful and non-destructive.

“We have the largest social movement in world history. Today we were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. People are waking up to our global call: for racial justice and an end to injustice economy, environmental racism and white supremacy “, the Black Lives Matter movement tweeted Friday. “We’re just getting started.”

Any politician sitting at the national level can submit nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize. They are only allowed 2,000 words to present their case.

The deadline for the submission of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize is February 1. The winner will be chosen in October, with the award ceremony scheduled for December 10.

CNN’s Leah Asmelash, Sara Sidner and Mallory Simon contributed to this report.

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