Editing Henry Dunant (section)

== Nobel Peace Prize ==
[[File:Jean Henri Dunant.jpg|right|thumb|Dunant in 1901]]
In 1901, Dunant was awarded the first-ever [[Nobel Peace Prize]] for his role in founding the International Red Cross Movement and initiating the Geneva Convention. By public and private means, Müller, and later Norwegian military physician [[Hans Daae]] (who had received a copy of Müller's book), advocated Dunant's case to the Nobel committee over the course of 4 years.<ref name="Daae">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ny77bPwKxaUC&pg=PA48 | title=The Nobel Peace Prize and the Laureates: An Illustrated Biographical History | publisher=Science History Publications | author=Abrams, Irwin | author-link=Irwin Abrams | year=2001 | page=48 | isbn=978-0-8813-5388-4}}</ref><ref name="Heudtlass">{{cite journal | url=https://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/pdf/RC_Jun-1964.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/pdf/RC_Jun-1964.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live | title=J. Henry Dunant and the events leading to the award of the first Nobel Peace Prize | author=Heudtlass, Willy | journal=[[International Review of the Red Cross]] | date=June 1964 | volume=4 | issue=39 | pages=287–| doi=10.1017/S0020860400087489 }}</ref> The award was jointly given to French pacifist [[Frédéric Passy]], founder of the Peace League and active with Dunant in the Alliance for Order and Civilization. The official congratulations which he received from the International Committee finally represented the rehabilitation of Dunant's reputation:

<blockquote>"There is no man who more deserves this honour, for it was you, forty years ago, who set on foot the international organization for the relief of the wounded on the battlefield. Without you, the Red Cross, the supreme humanitarian achievement of the nineteenth century would probably have never been undertaken."</blockquote>

Moynier and the International Committee as a whole had also been nominated for the prize. Although Dunant was supported by a broad spectrum in the selection process, he was still a controversial candidate. Some argued that the Red Cross and the Geneva Convention had made war more attractive and imaginable by eliminating some of its suffering. Therefore, Müller, in a letter to the committee, argued that the prize should be divided between Dunant and Passy, who for some time in the debate had been the leading candidate to be the sole recipient of the prize. Müller also suggested that if a prize were to be warranted for Dunant, it should be given immediately because of his advanced age and ill health.

By dividing the prize between Passy, a pacifist, and Dunant, a humanitarian, the Nobel Committee set a precedent for the conditions of the Nobel Peace Prize selection which would have significant consequences in later years. A section of Nobel's will had indicated that the prize should go to an individual who had worked to reduce or eliminate standing armies, or directly to promote peace conferences, which made Passy a natural choice for his peace work. On the other hand, the arguably distinct bestowal for humanitarian effort alone was seen by some as a wide interpretation of Nobel's will. However, another part of Nobel's testament marked the prize for the individual who had best enhanced the "brotherhood of people," which could be interpreted more generally as seeing humanitarian work like Dunant's as connected to peacemaking as well. Many recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize in later years can be assigned to either of these two categories first roughly established by the Nobel committee's decision in 1901.

Hans Daae succeeded in placing Dunant's part of the prize money, 104,000 Swiss Francs, in a Norwegian Bank and preventing access by his creditors. Dunant himself never spent any of the money during his lifetime, continuing to live simply and reserving it for bequests in his will to those who cared for him and charitable causes.<ref name="Daae"/>