Methodology

Nominees are selected by the inaugural committee of the institution. During the first cycle, the inaugural committee consists of the founder alone. As the institution matures, the committee will expand to include independent members drawn from journalism, international law, and academic political science. The expansion of the committee will be documented publicly when it occurs.

A person becomes eligible for nomination in a category when their public conduct, on the public record, meets the definition of that category. The threshold for inclusion is set deliberately high. The institution is a register of the most serious cases, not a list of every person whose behaviour falls short.

The institution does not accept public nominations. Crowdsourced lists are open to manipulation by partisan campaigns. The committee makes its selections from independent research and review of the public record.

Every citation against a nominee is built from the public record. Each claim of fact in a citation is supported by at least two independent sources of reputable standing.

Reputable sources include the reporting of established international news organisations with editorial standards and a public record of accountability, the findings of international courts and tribunals, the reports of established human rights bodies including the United Nations and its specialised agencies, peer-reviewed academic research, and the public statements, written orders, and recorded actions of the person themselves.

Sources of opinion, advocacy, and partisan commentary are not used as evidence of fact. They may be cited where the citation concerns the public reception of conduct, but they are not used to establish what the conduct was.

A citation that cannot be supported to this standard is not published.

For the inaugural cycle, the committee consists of the founder of the institution.

The founder selects nominees, drafts the citations, and reviews them against the evidentiary threshold above. Where the founder has a personal connection to any nominee, the matter is recused from the cycle and the nomination is withdrawn.

The institution is operated as a sole founder body during the inaugural cycle because no public institution begins with a full board. Every counterpart body, including the Nobel Foundation in its first years, began with a small number of people doing the work. As the institution generates a public record, it will recruit committee members on the basis of that record.

All contributions are held by the institution from the moment they are made until the end of the cycle in which they were made.

During the cycle, the institution may use a portion of funds held for operating costs as set out on the Disbursement page. The portion used for operating costs is published publicly and is held to the lowest level the institution can sustain.

At the end of the cycle, the institution disburses the remaining funds to the partner organisations confirmed for the category in which the contributions were made. The partner organisations are selected for each cycle from those whose work directly opposes the conduct documented against the nominees in that category.

The institution publishes a record of every disbursement, including the recipient organisation, the amount, and the date.

Whether the entire balance for a category is given to the partner organisations associated with the nominee who received the most votes, or whether the balance is divided across all partner organisations in the category, is a matter for the committee in the first cycle and will be set as a permanent rule in the second cycle. The decision will be published before the close of the first cycle.

Members of the committee may not hold paid positions with, or receive funds from, any nominee, any organisation controlled by a nominee, any partner organisation in receipt of disbursements, or any political party or campaign in any country.

Members of the committee may not own or hold a financial interest in any media organisation that reports on the institution’s work.

Members of the committee are not permitted to vote in cycles where they have a personal connection to any nominee. Where such a connection exists, the matter is declared in writing to the rest of the committee and the member recuses from that cycle.

The founder of the institution receives no salary from it. If, in the future, the institution generates sufficient operational funds to compensate staff, the salary structure will be published in full on the Disbursement page.

A nominee, or a legal representative formally retained by the nominee, may submit a response to a citation. The procedure is set out on the Right of Reply page.