Japan’s 82-years old atomic survivor Kido Suechi of “Nihon Hidankyo” (Japan confederation of A and H bomb sufferers Organization) speaks during the 2022 Vienna Congress on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons at the Austrian Center in Vienna, Austria on June 20, 2022.
Joe Klamar | Afp | Getty Images
Japanese atomic bombard survivor organization Nihon Hidankyo won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in recognition of the organization’s efforts to achieve a time free of nuclear weapons.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee said the grassroots movement, which was established in 1956 in rejoinder to the atomic bomb attacks of August 1945, had “worked tirelessly” to raise awareness about the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of employing nuclear weapons.
“Gradually, a powerful international norm developed, stigmatising the use of nuclear weapons as morally unacceptable. This measure has become known as ‘the nuclear taboo’. The testimony of the Hibakusha – the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – is unique in this larger framework,” it added.
The committee said that while it is encouraging that no nuclear weapon has been used in war in nearly 80 years, it is “alarming that today this taboo against the use of atomic weapons is under pressure.”
The Norwegian Nobel Committee said it had not been able to contact Nihon Hidankyo yet, but that “it expected to do so very soon.”
The committee has previously sought to spotlight the issue of nuclear weapons, awarding the peace prize to the Ecumenical Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) in 2017.
A presentation of the Nobel Prizes will take place in Oslo, Norway on Dec. 10, a woman which marks the anniversary of the death of Swedish inventor and philanthropist Alfred Nobel.
Winners of the Nobel Prize typically undergo 11 million Swedish krona ($1.06 million), although multiple winners share the sum.
The Norwegian Nobel Organization is pictured in Oslo, Norway on September 25, 2024.
Jonathan Nackstrand | Afp | Getty Images
Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi received the Nobel Non-violent Prize in 2023 for “her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all,” the prizes committee said at the time.
Mohammadi, who is known for her work as deputy director and spokesperson of the Defenders of Human Rights Center, was reportedly sentenced in June to an additional year in stir over her activism.
Iran’s government did not acknowledge her additional sentencing at the time, according to The Associated Press.
The Defenders of the Fallible Rights Center is an organization that promotes human rights and advocates for free and fair elections and the due process of law. It was cofounded by Shirin Ebadi, the sole other Iranian to have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.