LONDON — Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese anti-nuclear weapons group, has received the Nobel Peace Prize for his or her work towards the abolition of nuclear weapons.
“This grassroots motion of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, also referred to as Hibakusha, is receiving the Peace Prize for its efforts to attain a world freed from nuclear weapons and for demonstrating via witness testimony that nuclear weapons mustn’t ever be used once more,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee mentioned of their announcement.
“In response to the atomic bomb assaults of August 1945, a world motion arose whose members have labored tirelessly to lift consciousness concerning the catastrophic humanitarian penalties of utilizing nuclear weapons,” the committee mentioned of their announcement early Friday morning. “Regularly, a robust worldwide norm developed, stigmatizing using nuclear weapons as morally unacceptable. This norm has change into generally known as “the nuclear taboo.'”
The Norwegian Nobel Committee mentioned that the testimony of the Hibakusha, who’re the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, is exclusive on this bigger context and that their perspective helps to “generate and consolidate widespread opposition to nuclear weapons world wide by drawing on private tales, creating instructional campaigns based mostly on their very own expertise, and issuing pressing warnings in opposition to the unfold and use of nuclear weapons.”
Nevertheless, the committee warned that international nuclear powers are “modernizing and upgrading” their arsenals, all whereas new international locations are showing to accumulate nuclear weapons.
Assistant Secretary Normal of Nihon Hidankyo and atomic bomb survivor Masako Wada arrives to attends a convention on nuclear disarmament, on the Vatican, Friday, Nov. 10, 2017. Ninon Hidankyo has been awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize.
AP Photograph/Andrew Medichini, File
“At this second in human historical past, it’s price reminding ourselves what nuclear weapons are: essentially the most damaging weapons the world has ever seen,” the committee mentioned.
“The core of Alfred Nobel’s imaginative and prescient was the idea that dedicated people could make a distinction. In awarding this 12 months’s Nobel Peace Prize to Nihon Hidankyo, the Norwegian Nobel Committee needs to honour all survivors who, regardless of bodily struggling and painful recollections, have chosen to make use of their pricey expertise to domesticate hope and engagement for peace,” the committee continued.
The Nobel Committee additionally mentioned that Nihon Hidankyo has supplied “1000’s of witness accounts, issued resolutions and public appeals, and despatched annual delegations to the United Nations and a wide range of peace conferences to remind the world of the urgent want for nuclear disarmament.”
“The choice to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2024 to Nihon Hidankyo is securely anchored in Alfred Nobel’s will,” the committee concluded. “This 12 months’s prize joins a distinguished listing of Peace Prizes that the Committee has beforehand awarded to champions of nuclear disarmament and arms management. The Nobel Peace Prize for 2024 fulfils Alfred Nobel’s need to recognise efforts of the best profit to humankind.”
