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Black Lives Matter movement proposed for Nobel Peace Prize

Black Lives Matter movement proposed for Nobel Peace Prize

Black Lives Matter protesters surrounded by policemen

Black Lives Matter, a movement which received an impetus in May, 2020, has been proposed for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Founded in the United States in 2013, the movement became a rallying cry after a Black person George Floyd died at the hands of the US police.

A white policeman had knelt on Floyd's neck for eight minutes ignoring Floyd's pleas that he couldn't breathe. The incident fuelled protests in the United States that sped across the world.

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"This movement has become one of the strongest global movements for working with racial injustice. They have also been spread to many many countries, building up... awareness on the importance of fighting racial injustice," Petter Eide, a socialist lawmaker who proposed BLM for the Peace Prize, told AFP.

Several other names have been mooted for the Peace Prize including controversial Wikileaks founder and whistleblower Julian Assange, former US president Donald Trump, media rights group RSF and a trio of Belarusian opposition leaders led by Svetlana Tikhanovskaya.

The Nobel prizes will be announced at the start of October. This year's prize went to the World Food Programme, the UN food agency.