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ICAN celebrates the Nobel Peace Prize!

On 10 December 2017 in Oslo, Norway, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize! This honour was in recognition for our work bringing attention to the humanitarian impacts of nuclear weapons and working with governments to achieve the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
 
WILPF is an active member of the ICAN International Steering Group and has played a leading role in campaigning for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Reaching Critical Will’s Director, Ray Acheson, was at the awards ceremony in Oslo to represent WILPF. It was truly an honour to be part of the ICAN delegation at these events, which WILPF members from National Sections involved in ICAN’s work also joined.
 
This Nobel Peace Prize is an acknowledgement of ICAN’s tireless efforts to achieve the ban treaty and reframe the global discourse on nuclear weapons. ICAN’s efforts build on decades of activism against nuclear weapons. Since the first nuclear weapon tests in New Mexico in July 1945 to their horrific and inhumane use against citizens in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to the thousands of tests around the world, activists have worked tirelessly to oppose the possession of these weapons on the basis their catastrophic humanitarian and environmental consequences.

Women in particular have mobilised against these weapons, from blocking nuclear bases and convoys with their bodies to leading civil society advocacy including through ICAN. WILPF has actively opposed nuclear weapons since their inception and has campaigned tirelessly for nuclear disarmament. The organisation is honoured to have been part of ICAN for the past ten years, bringing a feminist perspective to the campaign and working alongside atomic bomb survivors from Japan, indigenous test survivors, and antinuclear activists from around the world.

Congratulations to ICAN and to everyone working for a safer, saner planet!