Cuban doctors add another four British Nobel nominations

The international campaign to recognize Cuban doctors of the Henry Reeve brigade with the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize today added four other formal nominations in the United Kingdom.

The new proposals were made by Paula Barker, Ian Byrne, Dan Carden and Kim Johnson, who are members of the British Parliament representing different electoral districts of the English city of Liverpool, the director of the Campaign for Solidarity with Cuba (CSC), Rob Miller, informed Prensa Latina.

According to the activist, the Norwegian committee in charge of awarding the Nobel Peace Prize confirmed to each of the legislators the receipt of formal nominations, bringing the number of applications submitted by British parliamentarians to 16, in addition to eight others sent by academics from the United Kingdom.

In their letters to support the proposal, the four members of the House of Commons agreed to highlight the humanitarian aid provided by the members of the Henry Reeve brigade in countries affected by natural disasters and epidemics such as Covid-19.

The Cuban health workers who make up this brigade on a voluntary basis, demonstrate selfless humanitarianism in the face of health emergencies and natural disasters, and provide assistance regardless of political borders, Johnson said.

Carden, another of the MPs highlighted that doctors from the Caribbean island have worked in 39 countries during the Covid-19 pandemic, which shows, he said, what can be achieved when working in a spirit of cooperation, peace and solidarity .

For his part, Byrne considered that the internationalism and humanitarianism shown by the members of the Henry Reeve brigade deserves to be recognized with the Nobel Peace Prize, while his colleague Barker assured the Norwegian committee that the world has much to learn from Cuba in terms of medical cooperation and training of health professionals.

According to the rules, nominations for recognition can only be made by parliamentarians, academics, magistrates of international courts, people already awarded and active or retired members of the committee, and have a deadline of January 31 of each year.

Apart from the formal requests, an open letter in support of the awarding of the Nobel to the Henry Reeve brigade published by the CSC has accumulated more than seven thousand signatures so far.