Stockholm (dpa) - Over 300 nominations have been made for the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize, the Norway-based award committee said on Wednesday.

The total of 317 candidates comprised 210 individuals and 107 organizations, the Nobel Committee said, noting it was the fourth-highest number since 1901.

Nominees for the 2020 award include Swedish teen climate activist Greta Thunberg, who was recently nominated by two Swedish lawmakers, Jens Holm and Hakan Svenneling, both members of the Left Party.

Thunberg, 17, began a global movement to draw attention to climate change by skipping school on Fridays and staged her first school strike in August 2018.

"Thunberg and Fridays For Future have built up the public momentum needed for adequate political action for solving the climate crisis. For that they deserve the Nobel Peace Prize," the two lawmakers said.

Last year, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Abiy. He was cited for his efforts to resolve a long-running border conflict with neighbouring Eritrea and efforts for "peace and international cooperation."

Politicians, academics, former peace laureates, directors of peace research institutes and current and former members of the Nobel Committee are among those who have the right to propose candidates.

The Nobel Committee advises nominators not to reveal their proposals, and keeps a 50-year seal on the names. However, this does not deter some from announcing their picks.

Norwegian lawmaker Guri Melby proposed the people of Hong Kong, citing that "they are fighting for fundamental rights such as freedom of speech, democracy and the rule of law."

Her proposal was recently endorsed by the parliamentary group of the Norwegian Liberals that noted that the Hong Kong protest "movement has no leadership, and all discussions and decisions take place on online discussion groups."

Several US Congress members, including four senators, have also nominated the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement, citing its "bravery and determination."

Members of the German Left Party said they nominated US whistleblower Edward Snowden, who disclosed mass surveillance programmes run by the US National Security Agency, as well as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and former US military intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, who worked with Assange to leak a trove of classified material in 2010.

"Their actions have exposed the architecture of abuse and war, and fortified the architecture of peace," the German lawmakers wrote.

The record of 376 candidates was set in 2016 when the five-strong panel selected President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia as laureate, citing his role in ending a more-than-50-year-long civil war.

A shortlist compiled by Henrik Urdal, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), was topped by the movement that helped drive political transition in Sudan, ending three decades of rule by strongman Omar al-Bashir.

Urdal - whose institute is not affiliated with the Nobel award - mentioned the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) and activist, Alaa Salah of the civil rights group Women of Sudanese Civic and Political Groups (MANSAM).

He also made a case for an award for press and media freedom, citing the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International, and Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny and the Anti-Corruption Foundation that groups Navalny's supporters.

The peace prize, first awarded in 1901, was endowed by the Swedish inventor of dynamite, Alfred Nobel. The winner is usually announced in October.