Why in news?
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.
Source: The Hindu
