The Norwegian Academy announced ICAN the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize 2017 on Thursday.
The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize was selected by a panel appointed by the Norwegian parliament from a total of 318 candidates.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee said, “We live in a world where the risk of nuclear weapons being used is greater than it has been for a long time. Some states are modernising their nuclear arsenals, and there is a real danger that more countries will try to procure nuclear weapons.”
Geneva-based organisation ICAN “has been a driving force in prevailing upon the world’s nations to pledge to cooperate … in efforts to stigmatise, prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons,” Nobel committee chairwoman Berit Reiss-Andersen said in the announcement.
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons is a global civil society coalition working to promote adherence to and full implementation of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The campaign helped bring about this treaty. ICAN was launched in 2007 and today counts 468 partner organizations in 101 countries.
Founders of ICAN were inspired by the success of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which was pivotal in bringing about the negotiation of the anti-personnel mine ban treaty in 1997. They sought to establish a similar campaign model.
The organization received the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize “for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons”
News Source: https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/
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