Nobel Peace Prize could be a call to order for Trump

Oslo : As activists seethe over Donald Trump's first days in the White House, some experts say this year's Nobel Peace Prize may prove to be an emphatic call on the president to respect human rights.

As the final day to submit nominations for the award passed on Wednesday, some of the names believed to be on the secret list bore the hallmarks of Trump's opponents -- though the US president himself was also nominated.

Kristian Berg Harpviken of the Peace Research Institute of Oslo, who has followed the peace prize process closely for years, put the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) at the top of his list of possible winners.

The group, nearly a century old, made headlines this week after presenting a legal challenge to Trump's immigration decree that temporarily blocks nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the US.

"A peace prize to the ACLU would certainly be understood as a criticism of President Trump," Harpviken wrote on his website.

But "it would more importantly be a celebration of long-standing, tenacious legal craftsmanship and the fight for civil rights, in the USA primarily, but also as part of a global struggle."

After sharp criticism from around the globe, Trump has made exemptions for all dual citizens. 

But in addition to the travel ban, the first days of Trump's presidency have been marked by repeated attacks on the media and a pledge to push ahead with a wall on the US border with Mexico -- moves that have worried civil liberties and rights advocates.

Nobel Peace Prize predictions are notoriously difficult, especially since the Nobel Institute keeps the list of nominations secret for 50 years.

Only those who are allowed to submit nominations are free to disclose their choices publicly.

Lawmakers and cabinet ministers, former laureates, and some university professors are among the thousands of people around the world entitled to suggest candidates. 

The five members of the Norwegian Nobel committee can also make nominations at their first meeting on February 16.