International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) was awarded 2017 Nobel Prize in Peace.
What is aNoble prize?
The Nobel Prize is a set of annual international awards bestowed in several categories by Swedish and Norwegian institutions.
It is widely regarded as the most prestigious award available in the fields of literature, medicine, physics, chemistry, peace, and Economic Sciences.
Each recipient, or laureate, receives a gold medal, a diploma, and a sum of money that has been decided by the Nobel Foundation.
The prize ceremonies take place annually in Stockholm, Sweden, with the exception of the peace prize, which is held in Oslo, Norway.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awards the Nobel Prize in Physics, Chemistry, and Economic Sciences.
The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded not by a Swedish organisation but by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
Nobel Prize may not be shared among more than three people, although the Nobel Peace Prize can be awarded to organizations of more than three people.
What is ICAN?
ICAN is a global civil society coalition working to promote adherence to and full implementation of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
It began in Australia and was officially launched in Vienna in 2007 and it counts 468 partner organizations in 101 countries as of 2017.
ICAN is a coalition of 468 grass roots non-governmental organisations from nearly 101 different countries around the globe.
The organization received the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize "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.
What is the significance of this peace prize?
This Nobel Prize is seen as a step towards attaining a world free of nuclear weapons by involving the nuclear-armed states.
It called upon nuclear-armed states to initiate negotiations to gradual elimination of the world’s 15,000 nuclear weapons.
This prize is a wake-up call to states with nuclear weapons to fulfil earlier pledges to work towards a nuclear free future.
