 2017 Nobel Peace Prize | ||||
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| International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) | ||||
 "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." | ||||
| Date |
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| Location | Oslo, Norway | |||
| Presented by | Norwegian Nobel Committee | |||
| Rewards | 9 millionSEK ($1.11M,€0.94M) | |||
| First award | 1901 | |||
| Website | Official website | |||
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The2017 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to theInternational Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) (founded in 2007) "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 on such weapons," according to theNorwegian Nobel Committee announcement on October 6, 2017.[1] The award announcement acknowledged the fact that "the world'snine nuclear-armed powers and their allies" neither signed nor supported the treaty-based prohibition known as theTreaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons or nuclear ban treaty, yet in an interview Committee ChairBerit Reiss-Andersen told reporters that the award was intended to give "encouragement to all players in the field" to disarm.[2] The award was hailed by civil society as well as governmental and intergovernmental representatives who support the nuclear ban treaty, but drew criticism from those opposed. At the Nobel Peace Prizeaward ceremony held inOslo City Hall on December 10, 2017,Setsuko Thurlow, an 85-year-old woman who survived the1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and ICAN Executive DirectorBeatrice Fihn jointly received amedal anddiploma of the award on behalf of ICAN and delivered theNobel lecture.[3]
A globalcivil society coalition of 468 peace, human rights, environment, development and faith groups as of 2017,[4] ICAN was recognized for its decade-long consensus-building support for theHumanitarian Pledge and theTreaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Nobel Committee ChairBerit Reiss-Andersen described ICAN's work as having "brought thedebate forward by focusing so heavily on thehumanitarian consequences of using nuclear arms."[5]
The Peace Prize announcement came in the midst of the2017 North Korea crisis, uncertainty over certification of Iran's compliance with the2015 accord that limits Iran's nuclear program, theDoomsday Clock assessment in January 2017 of the highest threat ofnuclear war since 1953, heightened rhetoric between Indian and Pakistani military officials to target each other and retaliate with the early use nuclear weapons, Russia's strategic doctrine calling for early use of nuclear weapons against any "major NATO assault" on its territory, and opposition bynuclear powers to the nuclear ban treaty and its ratification.[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]
In a telephone interview immediately after the announcement, ICAN Executive DirectorBeatrice Fihn said that, theCold War being long over, possession and use of weapons of mass destruction "is no longer acceptable" in the 21st century.[16] In a formal statement, ICAN called the 2017 prize a tribute to "the tireless efforts of many millions of campaigners and concerned citizens worldwide who, ever since the dawn of theatomic age, have loudly protested nuclear weapons" and to "the survivors of theatomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki—thehibakusha—and victims ofnuclear test explosions".[17][18] Holding a press conference at UN Headquarters, in New York, the ICAN executive director said that disarmament campaign efforts of a "new generation" of "people who grew up after theCold War and don't understand why we still have the [nuclear] weapons," were in effect also being recognized by the award.[19]
Nominations for the prize numbered 318, including 215 individuals and 103 organizations, second highest to the record 376 nominations considered in 2016.[20] Though the Nobel Committee does not release names being considered for 50 years, reportedly they included: Tong Jen and Onodera Toshitaki seeking justice for Chinese victims ofwartime atrocities during World War II; organizers Iran Foreign MinisterMohammad Javad Zarif andEU foreign policy chiefFederica Mogherini of the 2015 Iran Deal negotiations; UNHCR and High CommissionerFilippo Grandi for their work on the rights and dignity of refugees; Turkish journalists Cumhuriyet andCan Dündar;The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for their work securing Gambia's political transition; and the humanitarianWhite Helmets, also known as the Syrian Civil Defense, and Raed al Saleh.[21][22][23]
Congratulatory messages in the days following the award announcement came from individual disarmament supporters as well as ICAN coalition organizations, other civil society groups, public figures, governments and the United Nations, including: survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings (hibakusha), The ATOM Project,Peace Boat,Nuclear Threat Initiative,Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament,Women's International League for Peace and Freedom,Human Rights Watch,Oxfam,Ploughshares Fund,Stockholm International Peace Research Institute,Germany,EU foreign policy chiefFederica Mogherini,UK Green Party co-leaderCaroline Lucas,Austria, Canada'sNew Democratic Party Critic for Foreign AffairsHélène Laverdière,Mexico, andNigeria.[24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38] Twenty-three countries included congratulatory remarks in their statements at theUN General Assembly First Committee on Disarmament and International Security, includingSweden andNew Zealand.[39]
Pugwash PresidentSergio Duarte wrote that the award designation reflects "growing public recognition" of banning nuclear weapons as part of the international humanitarian norm to abolishweapons of mass destruction, citing examples of the abolition ofbacteriological weapons in the 1970s andchemical weapons in the 1990s. He also called on State parties to make further progress at the UN High Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament slated for 2018, noting the role of civil society organizations such as ICAN in supporting suchmultilateraldisarmament processes.[40]
UN Secretary-GeneralAntónio Guterres relayed in a press statement that the award "recognizes the determined efforts of civil society to highlight the unconscionablehumanitarian and environmental consequences that would result if they [nuclear weapons] were ever used again," noting that the first UN General Assembly resolution, in 1946, had "established the goal of ridding the world of nuclear weapons and all weapons of mass destruction."[41] The UN's top disarmament officialIzumi Nakamitsu in a statement said that the 2017 Peace Prize "recognizes once again the vital and indispensable role of civil society in advancing our common aspirations peace, security and a world free of nuclear weapons."[42]
Former Soviet Union PresidentMikhail Gorbachev in a statement said the award designation was "a very good decision" and signified that "a world without nuclear weapons—there cannot be any other goal!", also recalling a joint statement with thenUS PresidentRonald Reagan at the 1986Reykjavik Summit that "a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought."[43]
William McNeilly defended hisWikiLeaked report in 2015 that claimedTrident nuclear programme safety and security failures and that sparkednuclear-deterrent debates in the UK the same year.[44][45]
New Zealand's Green Party Spokesperson for Social Development, MPJan Logie, said that "Our Pacific Ocean and its peoples have suffered the terribleeffects of nuclear explosions and today we acknowledge the survivors ofnuclear weapons use andtesting. This Nobel Prize honours them."[46]
Aging survivors of the 1945Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings, known ashibakusha, have long campaigned to abolish nuclear weapons, often recounting the horrific suffering they endured and from which many more died. At gatherings to watch the broadcast Peace Prize announcement and in other press interviews, their reactions included:[11][47]
Speaking atBowling Green University with fellow Hiroshima bombing survivor Keiko Ogura, who founded Hiroshima Interpreters for Peace,Setsuko Thurlow likened ICAN's work to othersocial movements eventually embraced by nations, saying "it is our moral imperative to abolish nuclear weapons" and that the Peace Prize for ICAN "represents a break from the typical state perspective."[48]
Supporters from faith communities issued congratulatory statements, including: theDalai Lama,Daisaku Ikeda,Father Shay Cullen, theHoly See,Pax Christi International, and theWorld Council of Churches.[49][50][51][52][53][54]
While the majority of reactions from the international community hailed the Nobel Committee's decision, other reactions were critical about the announcement's implications.[2]NATO Secretary-GeneralJens Stoltenberg said thatNATO has in common with ICAN the goal of "preserving peace and creating the conditions for a world without nuclear weapons" and welcomes the attention drawn by the award announcement tonuclear non-proliferation issues, but that the nuclear ban treaty supported by ICAN "risks undermining the progress we have made over the years," citing the existence of nuclear arms as the reason to maintainnuclear arsenals and for NATO remaining anuclear alliance since theCold War.[55] In a press releaseNorwegian Prime MinisterErna Solberg praised ICAN for promoting their common goal of a world free of nuclear weapons but reiterated that Norway will not sign the ban treaty, echoing NATO's stance.[56]
Similarly, spokespersonDmitry Peskov told reporters that theKremlin believes the award decision should be respected and thatRussia as a member of thenuclear club both supportsnuclear non-proliferation and maintains its position expressed byPresident Vladimir Putin that "there is no alternative to nuclear parity" inglobal security measures.[57] The government ofAustralia as of October 9, 2017, did not comment on the award designation but, through its spokesperson, acknowledged "the commitment of ICAN and its supporters to promoting awareness of the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons" and restated the government's position that "so long as the threat of nuclear attack exists, US extended deterrence will serve Australia's fundamental national security interests."[58] TheUSA reacted by saying in its statement that the award announcement "does not change the U.S. position on thetreaty" which in its view "risks undermining existing efforts to address global proliferation and security challenges," and that "no state possessing nuclear weapons or which depends upon such weapons for its security supports" the ban treaty.[59] When asked to clarify whether Canadian Prime MinisterJustin Trudeau wanted to congratulate ICAN, theprime minister's office did not respond, though in a June 2017 statementCanadian Foreign MinisterChrystia Freeland's press secretary said that "Canada remains firmly committed to concrete steps towards global nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation."[39]
The Economist questioned the appropriateness of ICAN's winning of the prize, arguing it was doubtful their nuclear-ban treaty effort would do anything to advance global peace due to its rejection by the world's nuclear powers.[60]
On October 20, 2017,Euronews reported that, through research with German broadcasterZDF into Nobel Prize Foundation index funds investments, German campaign group Facing Finance had determined that the Peace Prize award was funded in part by Foundation investments in companies contributing to nuclear weapons programs, includingTextron,Lockheed Martin andRaytheon, and urged ICAN not to accept the 9 millionSEK award money.[61] According toAgence France-Presse, the head of theNobel InstituteOlav Njolstad was confronted on October 26, 2017, with the revelation confirmed by environmental groupThe Future in Our Hands, and Foundation directorLars Heikensten said the following day that "[a]t the latest, by March next year [2018] we will have no investment in anything that is connected with any kind of production which is classified as connected with nuclear weapons."[62][63]
A day ahead of the December 10th award ceremony atOslo City Hall, ICAN installed outside theNorwegian Parliament building 1,000 red and bluepaper cranes made by children in Hiroshima.[64]
After the first wartime use of nuclear weapons, in 1946, the Peace Prize began to recognize nuclear disarmament efforts:[65][66][67]
In the award presentation speech on December 10, 2017, Nobel Committee Chair Berit Reiss-Andersen recalled that "twelve Peace Prizes have been awarded, in whole or in part," to honor "efforts against the proliferation of nuclear weapons and for nuclear disarmament," and included2009 Nobelist Barack Obama.[68]
Advancing disarmament and arms control is one of the central criteria for awarding the Peace Prize, along with the promotion of peace talks and the "promotion of fraternity between nations."
