- Title: Anti-nuclear weapons group in running for 2016 Nobel Peace Prize
- Date: 1st October 2016
- Summary: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (FILE - SEPTEMBER 28, 2015) (REUTERS) SWISS AND GENEVA FLAGS FLYING LAKE GENEVA AS FLAGS FLY BUILDING OF INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO ABOLISH NUCLEAR WEAPONS (ICAN) ENTRANCE OF ICAN BUILDING WITH SIGNBOARD SIGN ON SIGNBOARD READING (English): "ICAN, INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO ABOLISH NUCLEAR WEAPONS" PEOPLE WORKING IN ICAN OFFICE WITH ICAN BANNER ON WALL ICAN BANNER VARIOUS OF ICAN'S EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, BEATRICE FIHN, WORKING (SOUNDBITE) (English) ICAN'S EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, BEATRICE FIHN, SAYING: "We're working very hard on trying to make nuclear weapons illegal. They are not yet prohibited by a treaty - nuclear weapons - and I think that we are trying to change people's minds. People have been accepting nuclear weapons as legitimate tools for providing security for, you know, 70 years now and we are trying to change the mindset, really, that it's not acceptable to threaten, to level an entire city, just to keep yourself secure." PAINTING IN FIHN'S OFFICE WRITING ON PAINTING READING (English): "NEVER NO MORE" (SOUNDBITE) (English) ICAN INTERNATIONAL STAFF TEAM MEMBER, DANIEL HOGSTA, SAYING: "The Nobel Peace Prize is obviously something that would generate a lot of impetus and a lot of momentum towards, and really kind of put it back into the public spotlight, which is what we really need if we want the Ban Treaty (awareness) to come back and also for it to have a maximum impact in terms of creating pressure on the governments that have nuclear weapons and also the governments that are in nuclear alliances. And also governments, non-nuclear weapon states who have, you know, have not seen this as kind of an important issue for them. This is really something that would make it, generate a lot of excitement about that." VARIOUS OF ICAN POSTER READING (English): "BAN NUCLEAR WEAPONS" (SOUNDBITE) (English) ICAN'S EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, BEATRICE FIHN, SAYING: "We don't really expect to win of course. We are quite a young campaign still and we have a lot of work to do before, but this is an extreme honour of course that people recognise the work that we do." VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WORKING IN ICAN OFFICE VARIOUS OF ICAN INTERNATIONAL STAFF TEAM MEMBER, DANIEL HOGSTA, WORKING BOOK COVER WITH TITLE READING: (English) "BAN NUCLEAR WEAPONS" ICAN SIGN, (English) READING: "ICAN. INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO ABOLISH NUCLEAR WEAPONS." PEOPLE WORKING IN ICAN OFFICE
- Embargoed: 16th October 2016 09:09
- Keywords: Nobel Nobel Peace Prize awards peace nuclear weapons ICAN Beatrice Fihn Daniel Hogsta
- Location: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / NAGASAKI AND HIROSHIMA, JAPAN
- City: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / NAGASAKI AND HIROSHIMA, JAPAN
- Country: Switzerland
- Reuters ID: LVA001526VCQV
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL WHICH WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) is a candidate for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize.
ICAN is a campaign coalition with more than 360 partner organisations in at least 90 countries. It includes peace, anti-nuclear, environment, development and faith-based organisations among many others.
The group says its principle basis for the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons is the inevitably indiscriminate, inhumane and unacceptable effects of their use.
"We're working very hard on trying to make nuclear weapons illegal," Executive Director Beatrice Fihn told Reuters.
"They are not yet prohibited by a treaty - nuclear weapons - and I think that we are trying to change people's minds. People have been accepting nuclear weapons as legitimate tools for providing security for, you know, 70 years now and we are trying to change the mind set, really, that it's not acceptable to threaten, to level an entire city, just to keep yourself secure," she added.
Daniel Hogsta is a Geneva-based staff member, and says the nomination is an opportunity to renew public interest in the abolition of nuclear weapons.
"The Nobel Peace Prize is obviously something that would generate a lot of impetus and a lot of momentum towards, and really put it back into the public spotlight, which is what we really need if we want the Ban Treaty (awareness) to come back," he said.
"Also governments, non-nuclear weapon states who have, you know, have not seen this as kind of an important issue for them. This is really something that would make it, generate a lot of excitement about that," he said.
ICAN was initially established as a project of the Medical Association for Prevention of War (the Australian affiliate of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW)), hosted and nurtured as an international campaign by IPPNW. It was formally launched in 2007 in Australia and then internationally at the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
Preparatory Committee in Vienna, and has now evolved into an independent international campaign for a nuclear weapons ban treaty.
The Peace Prize nomination comes after the 71st anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Japan's Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War Two. Japan says at least 396,000 people died as a result, many from radiation illness.
Fihn says ICAN is honoured by the nomination but doesn't really expect to win.
"We are quite a young campaign still and we have a lot of work to do before, but this is an extreme honour, of course, that people recognise the work that we do," she said.
The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced in Oslo on Friday October 7, at 1100 a.m (0900GMT).
The prize, worth 10 million Swedish crowns (1.1 million U.S. dollars), will be handed over on December 10, 2016. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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