The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).
The Norwegian Nobel Committee on Friday announced the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons as winner of the $1.1 million prize.
The Geneva-based organization ICAN “has been a driving force in prevailing upon the world’s nations to pledge to cooperate … in efforts to stigmatize, prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons,” committee chairwoman Berit Reiss-Andersen said in the announcement.
“It is a great honour to have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2017 in recognition of our role in achieving the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. “
This historic agreement, adopted on 7 July with the backing of 122 nations, offers a powerful, much-needed alternative to a world in which threats of mass destruction are allowed to prevail and, indeed, are escalating.
Founded in Vienna in 2007 on the fringes of an international conference on the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, ICAN has tirelessly mobilised campaigners and celebrities alike in its cause.
From its offices in the buildings of the World Council of Churches in Geneva, ICAN works with 468 non-governmental organisations across 101 countries, including rights, development, environmental and peace groups.
The 2017 Peace Prize calls upon nuclear-armed states to initiate negotiations to the gradual elimination of the world’s 15,000 nuclear weapons.
Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Walsstrom said that giving the prize to ICAN was “well-deserved and timely.”
