ICAN was awarded the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts on nuclear prohibition.
India denounced from voting in favour of a resolution brought in by ICAN, in this regard.
This gains significance in the larger context of India's place in nuclear non-proliferation.
What is ICAN?
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons was launched in 2007.
It is a global civil society coalition which constitutes 468 partner organizations from around 10o countries.
The campaign helped bring about the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
It works primarily to promote adherence to and full implementation of this treaty.
It called upon nuclear-armed states to initiate negotiations to gradual elimination of the world’s 15,000 nuclear weapons.
Its uniqueness is that it pays attention to the humanitarian threat posed by nuclear weapons.
What was its resolution?
Earlier this year, ICAN came up with an international treaty that was negotiated and concluded at the United Nations.
The treaty will come into effect only when 50 nations have ratified it; so far, only a handful have done so.
When it comes into force, it will be binding only on those who have ratified it.
Notably, none of the nine nuclear powers, including India and Pakistan, associated themselves with the treaty or the related negotiations at the UN.
Many of them view the possession of nuclear weapons as deterrents to war.
Officially, India, holds up its commitment to a nuclear weapons-free world.
However, it stresses that there must be a “universal, non-discriminatory and verifiable nuclear disarmament”.
It stayed away from the treaty citing the Conference of Disarmament as the right forum to negotiate a “step-by-step process” to achieve a nuclear weapons-free world.
What does India's stance imply?
If India had joined the other member states in voting for the resolution, it would have signalled itself as a major force for peace.
By not doing so, India has alienated itself from a majority of the international community sizeably from the non-aligned nations.
India has denied the opportunity of being the only Nuclear Weapon Power to continue with the record of championing for peace cause.
This has rendered meaningless India's adherence over the past to various nuclear disarmament efforts.
Moreover, seeking a resolution through Conference on Disarmament (CD) also seems almost unachievable.
Quick Fact
Conference on Disarmament (CD)
CD is a forum established in 1979 by the international community to negotiate multilateral arms control and disarmament agreements.
It is a forum used by its member states (around 65), to negotiate the Biological Weapons Convention and the Chemical Weapons Convention.
While the conference is not formally a UN organization, it is linked to it through a personal representative of the United Nations Secretary-General.
Resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly often request the conference to consider specific disarmament matters and in turn, the conference annually reports its activities to the Assembly.
The CD works by consensus, and nuclear powers, including India and Pakistan, assemble there mainly to block each other.
