The five members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee award the Nobel Peace Prize every year. They are appointed by the Parliament of Norway and roughly represent the political makeup of that body. The committee was established in 1897, and has awarded the prize most years since 1901. Fifty-four people have sat on the committee, of which ten have been women. Thirteen have been chair and six deputy chair. The awards in 1935 (to Carl von Ossietzky), 1973 (to Henry Kissinger) and 1994 (to Yasser Arafat) caused members of the committee to withdraw due to disagreement with the committee decision.
Since 2018, the members are Berit Reiss-Andersen (chair, of the Labour Party), Henrik Syse (deputy chair, of the Conservative Party), Thorbjørn Jagland (Labour Party), Anne Enger (Centre Party) and Asle Toje (Progress Party). Historically, the committee's members have represented seven political parties, including (in addition to the four parties currently represented) the Liberal Party, the Socialist Left Party and the Christian People's Party. Six people have sat as the committee's secretary, who is also director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute. Since 2015, this has been Olav Njølstad, historian, biographer and novelist.