Black Lives Matter proposed for Nobel Peace Prize

Black Lives Matter, a movement which became a rallying cry after the killing by US police of an unarmed black man, has been proposed for the Nobel Peace Prize, a Norwegian MP said Saturday.

Founded in the United States in 2013, the movement received an impetus in May after George Floyd died. A white policeman had knelt on Floyd's neck for eight minutes ignoring Floyd's pleas that he couldn't breathe.

The incident fuelled protests in the United States that sped across the world.

"This movement has become one of the strongest global movements for working with racial injustice," Petter Eide, a socialist lawmaker who proposed BLM for the Peace Prize, told AFP.

"They have also been spread to many many countries, building up... awareness on the importance of fighting racial injustice," he said.

Tens of thousands of people, including MPs and ministers from all countries, former Nobel laureates and distinguished academics, can propose candidates for the various Nobel prizes.

The deadline ends on Sunday.

Several other names have been mooted for the Peace Prize including controversial Wikileaks founder and whistleblower Julian Assange, former US president Donald Trump, media rights group RSF and a trio of Belarusian opposition leaders led by Svetlana Tikhanovskaya.

The Nobel prizes will be announced at the start of October. This year's prize went to the World Food Programme, the UN food agency.