Activist group aiming to abolish nuclear weapons wins Nobel Peace Prize

ICAN co-founder Tilman Ruff – who is now winning the prestigious prize for the second time – has called on Australia to oppose nuclear weapons, particularly in the face of North Korea’s escalating missile and nuclear tests and US President Donald Trump’s inflammatory pro-war rhetoric.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has taken out one of the world’s most prestigious awards, the 2017 Nobel Prize for Peace.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, which was launched in Victoria’s Parliament House 10 years ago, was announced as the victor in Oslo on Friday.

Federica Mogherini said on Twitter Friday: “We share a strong commitment to achieving the objective of a world free from nuclear weapons”.

Significantly, Iran, which has been accused by the US President Donald Trump of pursuing a nuclear programme, has signed the treaty. “In this context, recognition for the campaign [ICAN] has inspired us”, he said.

In announcing the award, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Berit Reiss-Andersen, said the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons was performing vital work.

In a landmark resolution, 123 countries voted to start talks on a “legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons” in the First Committee of the UN General Assembly in October 2016.

“The Nobel Committee would make a big splash if it awarded the prize to the Iran nuclear deal”, peace-prize historian Asle Sveen told AFP this week.

The treaty requires ratification by at least 50 nations to come into force.

Treaty negotiations were held over the course of a few months and led by non-nuclear countries, hibakusha and outspoken civil society groups – with ICAN at the forefront. The problem with the treaty pushed by ICAN is that none of the states that actually have nuclear weapons, or their closest allies, have signed on to it.

“In the same way as before, we will continue to work for nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation along with the nuclear powers”, his post read.

In that context, the Norwegian committee that awards the Nobel prizes could not have picked a more suitable victor for its peace prize than the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, better known as ICAN.

The White House and leaders of other nuclear powers have instead endorsed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which went into effect in 1970 and which limits but does not ban the powerful weapons.

ICAN activists in an act of protest against nuclear weapons at US Embassy in Berlin. It was launched internationally in Vienna in 2007.

Asked by journalists whether the prize was essentially symbolic, given that no worldwide measures against nuclear weapons have been reached, Reiss-Andersen said, “What will not have an impact is being passive”.

NATO member states such as the United States and Britain would have to give up their nuclear weapons if they were to comply with the treaty conditions, which broadly state that countries should not be in “control over nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices”. So, at a minimum, it is a powerful statement of expectations that the countries that have them must stop relying on them, must stop threatening to use them and must move toward their elimination. “They have not lived up to the spirit of their agreement”, he said.