Nobel Peace Prize: Who makes the decision? The award, he wrote, should recognise "the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses." While the other prizes - in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and economics - were to be decided by Swedish bodies, responsibility for awarding the Nobel Peace Prize was handed to an intensely secretive five-person committee appointed by the Norwegian Storting (parliament). The members of the committee - based in Oslo - are retired politicians who are chosen for a six-year term. Its current chairman is the secretary general of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland. Nominees for the award can only be put forward by certain groups, including members of national assemblies and governments of states, and people who have already received the Peace Prize. Working methodically over a period of eight months, the committee winnows the details of 200 to 300 of nominees, whose identities can only be revealed 50 years later. The five members review a series of detailed background reports prepared by permanent advisers to the Nobel Institute and scholars specialising in the candidates' fields of endeavour. Finally, a shortlist is drawn up in mid-September, before announcement of the Laureate the following month. Meticulous as the process may be, it has suffered repeated criticised - for alleged opacity, for lack of international input (only Norwegians serve on the committee) and for producing perceived political choices. The decision to choose Barack Obama for the Peace Prize in 2009 raised eyebrows because the US president had only been in office for twelve days by the time of the February 1 deadline for nominees that year. Other Nobel Prizes are usually awarded for achievements over long careers. Perhaps the Norwegian Nobel Committee's greatest error was never to recognise Mahatma Gandhi, who was nominated five times between 1937 and 1948. However, no award was granted in 1948, the year of the pacifist's death because of "no suitable living candidate," a hint at the omission.