Nobel Peace Prize 2017 awarded to International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, as the Norwegian Nobel Committee warned that the risk of a nuclear conflict is greater than for a long time.

Picture taken on September 13, 2017 shows activists of the International campaign to abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) wearing masks of US President Donald Trump (L) and North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un as they demonstrate in front of the US embassy in Berlin. The world's nuclear powers must begin "serious negotiations" aimed at disarmament, the Nobel committee said as it awarded its prestigious Peace Prize to non-proliferation pressure group ICAN.(AFP Photo)

ICAN describes itself as a coalition of grassroots non-government groups in more than 100 nations. It began in Australia and was officially launched in Vienna in 2007.

“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.

In July, 122 nations adopted a UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, but nuclear-armed states including the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France stayed out of the talks.

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

US President Donald Trump has called the Iran agreement the “worst deal ever negotiated” and a senior administration official said on Thursday that Trump is expected to announce soon that he will decertify the landmark pact.