Nobel Peace Prize: Previous winners

2002: The former president of the United States, Jimmy Carter, wins for his "decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development".

2003: The Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi is the surprise winner. She has gone on to wage a high-profile campaign attacking the increasingly hardline Tehran regime, in particular the judiciary. At one stage she was told to attend a revolutionary court or face arrest, an order she ignored.

2004: Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai becomes first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. She is honoured for her contribution to sustainable development, and a campaign to save Africa's trees. The continent's forests are under huge pressure from wood gathering and climate change. Their loss is creating devastating desertification.