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(CNN) -
The Black Lives Matter movement has been nominated for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize.
Norwegian MP Petter Eide nominated the global movement "for its fight against racism and racially motivated violence," he wrote in his official nomination papers, which were obtained by CNN.
"BLM's call for systemic change has spread around the world, forcing other countries to grapple with racism within their own societies," he said.
The Black Lives Matter protest movement, rekindled in the days after George Floyd's death in Minneapolis in May 2020, continues to shed light on what it calls systemic racism and police brutality from America's small towns to its urban centers.
What is the Black Lives Matter movement and why was it created?
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The group, which started with a hashtag in 2012 after Trayvon Martin's shooting death in Florida, has become a social monster.
It has changed the way people talk about police brutality and inequality.
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While there is no way to know exactly how big the movement has gotten, the organization has diversified with chapters around the world and has held rallies, boycotts, and other actions across the United States.
Online, it's what many have used to spread the word against police brutality.
And globally, many use it to show solidarity with blacks.
Seven cases of violent deaths of black citizens that have generated large protests in the United States.
Black Lives Matter: a global effort to combat inequality
Eide, who has represented the Left Socialist party in parliament since 2017, told CNN that he saw in Black Lives Matter a “legacy of both the civil rights movement in the United States and the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa.
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"The Norwegian Nobel Committee has always recognized a strong connection between racial justice and peace," said Eide.
In 1964, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. received the award for "his non-violent fight for the civil rights of the American black population," according to the Nobel Prize website.
Other Nobel Peace Laureates were associated with the South African anti-apartheid movement of the 1960s to the 1990s, including those of Nelson Mandela and Frederik Willem de Klerk, jointly awarded in 1993 for the nation's transition from a system of racial segregation. .
Eide, who served as Amnesty International Norway's secretary general in the 2000s, said he received several emails and messages following the announcement of the nomination.
"People send me a message to tell me that BLM is a violent organization," he said.
«I condemn all kinds of violence.
However, these arguments were the same when Martin Luther King received the award in 1964, or when Mandela received it in 1993. '
"It is not a strong argument," he added.
"If some elements of the movement may have been violent, that is no reason to blame the entire movement."
A 2020 report from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project showed that approximately 93% of racial justice protests in the United States since George Floyd's death have been peaceful and non-destructive.
“We have the largest social movement in world history.
Today, we have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
People are waking up to our global call: for racial justice and an end to economic injustice, environmental racism and white supremacy, ”the Black Lives Matter movement tweeted on Friday.
"We are only beginning."
Any politician serving at the national level can submit nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Only 2000 words are allowed to state their case.
The deadline for the presentation of the Nobel Peace Prize 2021 is February 1.
The winner will be chosen in October, and the awards ceremony is scheduled for December 10.
- CNN's Leah Asmelash, Sara Sidner, and Mallory Simon contributed to this report.
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