2017-10-06 17:10:00

Nobel Peace Prize awarded to anti-nuclear arms group


(Vatican Radio) The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded today to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

The Geneva-based organisation has been campaigning for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which was adopted by the United Nations in July. To come into effect, it needs ratification by 50 countries, but so far only three states have ratified it, including the Holy See.

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The chair of the Nobel committee, Berit Reiss-Andersen, noted the organisation, known as ICAN, is being given the award at a time of heightened international tensions.

She said the organisation had been given the award “for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its groundbreaking efforts to achieve a treaty based on prohibition on such weapons”.

Stigmatise, prohibit, eliminate

She said 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.''

“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 modernizing their arsenals and there is a real danger that more countries will try to acquire them, as exemplified by North Korea”, she added








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