Anti-nuclear weapon campaigners have been honoured in the past by the Nobel Committee.
The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to a Japanese group of survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki for its activism against nuclear weapons.
Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said the award to Nihon Hidankyo was made as the “taboo against the use of nuclear weapon is under pressure.”
The Nobel committee “wishes to honour all survivors who, despite physical suffering and painful memories, have chosen to use their costly experience to cultivate hope and engagement for peace,” he added.
The organisation, whose full name is the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organisations, was founded in 1956 by people affected by the two US atomic bomb strikes in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, known in Japanese as “hibakusha”.
The hibakusha gathered to pressure Japan into doing more for the victims, as well as lobbying governments worldwide to abolish all nuclear weapons.
They were previously nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985, 1994 and 2015.
Anti-nuclear weapon campaigners have been honoured in the past by the Nobel Committee.
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons won the Peace Prize in 2017, and in 1995, Joseph Rotblat and the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs won for “their efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international politics and, in the longer run, to eliminate such arms.”
Peace prize while conflicts escalate
The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday against a backdrop of devastating conflicts raging in the world, notably in the Middle East and Ukraine.
Alfred Nobel stated in his will that the prize should be awarded for “the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”
Since 1901, 104 Nobel Peace Prizes have been awarded, mostly to individuals but also to organizations that have been seen to advance peace efforts.
Last year’s prize went to jailed Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi for her advocacy of women’s rights and democracy and against the death penalty.
The Nobel committee said it also was a recognition of “the hundreds of thousands of people” who demonstrated against “Iran’s theocratic regime’s policies of discrimination and oppression targeting women.”
