There are 259 candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize for 2013 and 50 of them are organisations.
The names of the nominees and who nominated them are kept secret for 50 years according to the statutes of the Nobel Foundation but here are the likely contenders:
Denis Mukwege
Denis Mukwege is a doctor in the Democratic Republic of Congo, who has treated thousands of women gang-raped and tortured during the civil war. Mr Mukwege is the most likely challenger to Malala.
He is one of the world's leading experts on how to repair internal physical damage caused by gang rape.
He and his colleagues have treated more than 30,000 rape victims.
Last year he gave a speech at the United Nations denouncing mass rape in the Congo and criticising the international community for failing to act.
A month later four armed men attacked his home in an apparent assassination attempt. They took his daughters hostage and murdered one of his guards but Mukwege managed to escape the hail of bullets.
Following the attack Dr Mukwege fled to Europe but returned to the Congo earlier this year to continue treating his patients.
Malala Yousafzai
Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai was 14 when she was shot in the head by Taliban militants in 2012 as punishment for her high profile campaign to encourage girls to go to school.
She was in a pickup truck on her way home her from school when a masked man stopped the truck while another shot her in the head with a pistol.
Malala was flown to the UK for treatment and now attends school in Birmingham.
On 12 July 2013, Yousafzai's 16th birthday, she spoke at the UN to call for worldwide access to education. The UN dubbed the event "Malala Day."
Ban Ki-moon, who also spoke at the session, described her as "our hero".
The British doctor who helped to save Malala has said that she deserves to win the prize but Malala herself said she has more to achieve before she should win.
Earlier this week she told a Pakistan radio station: " I think that I still need to work a lot. In my opinion I have not done that much to win the Nobel Peace Prize."
Lyudmila Alexeyeva, Svetlana Gannushkina and Lilya Shibanova
In June Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law a bill punishing people for homosexual "propaganda" and made it illegal to provide information about homosexuality to people under 18.
He also signed a bill imposing jail terms and fines on those who offend religious believers.
The award may go to a trio human rights activists who have been some of the most vocal in opposing the punitive regulations. Veteran Soviet dissident Lyudmila Alexeyeva is Russia's oldest human rights activist aged 86. She was one of the founders of the Moscow Helsinki Group, a watchdog set up to monitor human rights during the Soviet era.
Alexeyeva has been heavily critical of the Kremlin's human rights record and has accused the government of numerous human rights violations.
Receiving numerous death threats, in June she said Putin's anti-gay propaganda bill " fits in perfectly with the course towards repressive politics that has been openly taken by our president and our parliament."
Svetlana Gannushkina is also rumoured to be among the shortlisted nominees. She has been engaged in human rights activities in Russia since the 1980s, including a stint protecting human rights in Chechnya.
Lilya Shibanova is the head of the only independent Russian election monitoring organisation which was founded for the protection of voters’ rights and the development of civil society.
Claudia Paz y Paz
Claudia Paz y Paz is the first female Attorney General in Guatemala, one of the most violent countries in Latin America. She has been heavily influential in the prosecution of organised crime and has campaigned against political corruption.
She has worked hard to bring to justice human rights abusers and perpetrators of widespread gender-based violence
Most importantly she has ensured that, for the first time, those responsible for human rights abuses committed by the military dictatorship during Guatemala's civil war have been prosecuted.
The 1960-1996 civil war killed a quarter of a million people but there were no prosecutions until Paz assumed office in 2010
The military general Efrain Rios Montt evaded justice for massacres carried out during the war but Paz helped to build the case against him.
And the controversial nominees ...
Vladimir Putin
A Russian advocacy group claims to have nominated Putin for the peace prize because he “actively promotes settlement of all conflicts arising on the planet.”
Russian singer and MP Iosif Kobzon compared Putin to Barack Obama who won the award in 2009. He said: "'Our president, who tries to stop the bloodshed and who tries to help the conflict situation with political dialogue, is more worthy of this high title.'
The International Academy of Spiritual Unity and Cooperation of Peoples of the World put Putin's name forward but since they cite his attempts to prevent a US air strike on Syria, the nomination may have arrived after the 1 February deadline for this year.
Edward Snowden
A sociology professor in Sweden has recommended NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Professor Stefan Svallfors said that Snowden's revelations about United States and British government mass surveillance programs had 'helped to make the world a little bit better and safe".
Snowden has been granted temporary asylum in Russia. U.S. authorities say he is a fugitive, having charged him with espionage in June.
Bradley Manning
Peace activist Mairead Maguire nominated U.S. soldier Bradley Manning for the Nobel Peace prize.
She said: " His incredible disclosure of secret documents to WikiLeaks helped end the Iraq War, and may have helped prevent further conflicts elsewhere.
Manning was sentenced in August to 35 years in jail for disclosing classified information through WikiLeaks; the largest intelligence leak in US history
Nobel Peace Prize 2013: the contenders - Telegraph
