International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons Wins Nobel 2017

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) will receive this year's Nobel Peace Prize.

According to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, ICAN has been the leading civil society actor in the effort to achieve a prohibition of nuclear weapons under international law.  The Nobel Committee reiterated that “the next steps towards attaining a world free of nuclear weapons must involve the nuclear-armed states".

According to The Independent," The group was awarded the honour 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”.

This year’s #NobelPeacePrize goes to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. Good choice given current nuclear brinkmanship… pic.twitter.com/pVjgjfR8ju

— Andrew Stroehlein (@astroehlein) October 6, 2017

BREAKING NEWS The 2017 Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) @nuclearban #NobelPrize pic.twitter.com/I5PUiQfFzs

— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 6, 2017

The organization is a coalition of non-governmental organisations from different countries across the globe. ICAN describes itself as a coalition of grassroots credit: -government groups in more than 100 nations, which started in Australia and formally launched in Vienna in 2007.

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They have played a major part in bringing about what in our day and age is equivalent to an international peace congress.

The Nobel prize seeks to strengthen the case of disarmament amid nuclear tensions between the United States and North Korea. Also, the uncertainty over the fate of a 2015 deal between Iran and major powers to limit Tehran's nuclear programme.

“We live in a world where the risk of nuclear weapons being used is greater than it has been for a long time,” said Berit Reiss-Andersen, the leader of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

The decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2017 to the ICAN has a solid grounding in Alfred Nobel’s will.

The will specifies three different criteria for awarding the Peace Prize. First, the promotion of fraternity between nations, second the advancement of disarmament and arms control and finally the holding and promotion of peace congresses. ICAN has been working vigorously to achieve nuclear disarmament.

Responding to the announcement, the group said:

The 2017 Nobel Peace Prize goes to ICAN, a coalition of NGOs dedicated to achieving a prohibition of nuclear weapons https://t.co/pHE4yALtjK pic.twitter.com/336jJ49Yz7

— CNN (@CNN) October 6, 2017

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Pic credits: DNA INDIA