2017 Nobel Peace Prize - The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2017 Friday Oct 06,2017

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2017

Who are ICAN?

• a coalition group supported by hundreds of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in over 100 countries across the world
• formed in 2007, inspired by a similar campaign to ban the use of landmines worldwide
• supporters include actor Michael Sheen, artist Ai Weiwei and former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
• its lobbying encouraged the UN to adopt the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons earlier this year which has been signed by 53 countries so far

The Nobel Peace Prize, worth nine million Swedish crowns ($1.10 million), will be presented in Oslo on Dec. 10,2017

The winner this year too seems to have been picked keeping in mind global politics, which has of late been dominated by the nuclear tensions between US and North Korea, and between Iran and US. 

"The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) is a coalition of non-governmental organizations in one hundred countries.

"By harnessing the power of the people, we have worked to bring an end to the most destructive weapon ever created – the only weapon that poses an existential threat to all humanity. "This prize is a tribute to the tireless efforts of many millions of campaigners and concerned citizens worldwide who, ever since the dawn of the atomic age, have loudly protested nuclear weapons, insisting that they can serve no legitimate purpose and must be forever banished from the face of our earth. "It is a tribute also to the survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – the hibakusha – and victims of nuclear test explosions around the world, whose searing testimonies and unstinting advocacy were instrumental in securing this landmark agreement.

"The treaty categorically outlaws the worst weapons of mass destruction and establishes a clear pathway to their total elimination. It is a response to the ever-deepening concern of the international community that any use of nuclear weapons would inflict catastrophic, widespread and long-lasting harm on people and our living planet," ICAN leader said.

The International Campaign for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons issued the following statement after winning the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. "It is a great honour to have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2017 in recognition of our role in achieving the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. "This historic agreement, adopted on 7 July with the backing of 122 nations, offers a powerful, much-needed alternative to a world in which threats of mass destruction are allowed to prevail and, indeed, are escalating.

Why a Norwegian Committee for the Nobel Peace Prize?

All Nobel Prizes are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, except for the Nobel Peace Prize, which is awarded in Oslo, Norway. The founder of the Nobel Prize, Alfred Nobel, was a Swedish cosmopolitan. In his will, he declared that the Nobel Peace Prize should be awarded by a Norwegian committee. When Alfred Nobel was alive, Norway and Sweden were united under one monarch, until 1905 when Norway became an independent kingdom.

How the prize is decided

• Eligible nominators from around the world can put forward candidates up to 1 February of the award year, while Nobel Committee members have more time
• All nominations are reviewed by the committee - whose five members are chosen by the Norwegian parliament - before a shortlist of 20-30 candidates are selected
• A group of Norwegian and international advisers write individual reports on the shortlisted candidates. Using these and further reports, the committee narrows the selection down to a handful
• A decision is reached in the last meeting of the committee, usually in late September or early October, before the prize is announced
• If a unanimous decision cannot be reached, a simple majority vote is used
• After the announcement, the award ceremony takes place on 10 December, the date of Alfred Nobel's death

Full list of Nobel Peace Prize laureates from 1901 to 2017

2017: International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)
2016: Juan Manuel Santos
2015: Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet
2014: Kailash Satyarthi, Malala Yousafzai
2013: Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)
2012: The European Union (EU)
2011: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee (Liberia), Tawakkul Karman (Yemen)
2010: Liu Xiaobo (China)
2009: Barack Obama (US)
2008: Martti Ahtisaari (Finland)
2007: Al Gore (US) and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
2006: Muhammad Yunus (Bangladesh) and the Grameen Bank
2005: International Atomic Energy Agency and Mohamed ElBaradei (Egypt)
2004: Wangari Maathai (Kenya)
2003: Shirin Ebadi (Iran)
2002: Jimmy Carter (US)
2001: Kofi Annan (Ghana) and the United Nations
2000: Kim Dae Jung (South Korea)
1999: Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders)
1998: John Hume and David Trimble (Northern Ireland)
1997: Jody Williams (US) and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines
1996: Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo and Jose Ramos-Horta (East Timor)
1995: Joseph Rotblat (Britain) and the Pugwash movement
1994: Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres (Israel) and Yasser Arafat (PLO)
1993: Nelson Mandela and Frederik de Klerk (South Africa)
1992: Rigoberta Menchu (Guatemala)
1991: Aung San Suu Kyi (Burma)
1990: Mikhail Gorbachev (Soviet Union)
1989: Dalai Lama (Tibet)
1988: United Nations Peacekeeping Forces
1987: Oscar Arias Sanchez (Costa Rica)
1986: Elie Wiesel (US)
1985: International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War
1984: Desmond Tutu (South Africa)
1983: Lech Walesa (Poland)
1982: Alva Myrdal (Sweden) and Alfonso Garcia Robles (Mexico)
1981: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
1980: Adolfo Perez Esquivel (Argentina)
1979: Mother Teresa (Albania)
1978: Anwar Sadat (Egypt) and Menachem Begin (Israel)
1977: Amnesty International
1976: Betty Williams (Britain) and Mairead Corrigan (Northern Ireland)
1975: Andrei Sakharov (Soviet Union)
1974: Sean MacBride (Ireland) and Eisaku Sato (Japan)
1973: Henry Kissinger (US) and Le Duc Tho (Vietnam, declined)
1972: prize not handed out
1971: Willy Brandt (Germany)
1970: Norman Borlaug (US)
1969: International Labour Organisation
1968: Rene Cassin (France)
1967: prize not handed out
1966: prize not handed out
1965: United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
1964: Martin Luther King Jr (US)
1963: International Committee of the Red Cross and the League of Red Cross Societies
1962: Linus Carl Pauling (US)
1961: Dag Hammarskjold (Sweden)
1960: Albert Lutuli (South Africa)
1959: Philip Noel-Baker (Britain)
1958: Georges Pire (Belgium)
1957: Lester Pearson (Canada)
1956: prize not handed out
1955: prize not handed out
1954: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
1953: George Marshall (US)
1952: Albert Schweitzer (France)
1951: Leon Jouhaux (France)
1950: Ralph Bunche (US)
1949: Lord (John) Boyd Orr of Brechin (Britain)
1948: prize not handed out
1947: Friends Service Council (The Quakers), American Friends Service Committee (The Quakers)
1946: Emily Greene Balch (US), John Raleigh Mott (US)
1945: Cordell Hull (US)
1944: International Committee of the Red Cross
1943: prize not handed out
1942: prize not handed out
1941: prize not handed out
1940: prize not handed out
1939: prize not handed out
1938: Nansen International Office for Refugees
1937: Viscount Cecil of Chelwood (Britain)
1936: Carlos Saavedra Lamas (Argentina)
1935: Carl von Ossietzky (Germany)
1934: Arthur Henderson (Britain)
1933: Sir Norman Angell (Ralph Lane) (Britain)
1932: prize not handed out
1931: Jane Addams (US) and Nicholas Murray Butler (US)
1930: Nathan Soederblom (Sweden)
1929: Frank Billings Kellogg (US)
1928: prize not handed out
1927: Ferdinand Buisson (France) and Ludwig Quidde (Germany)
1926: Aristide Briand (France) and Gustav Stresemann (Germany)
1925: Sir Austen Chamberlain (Britain) and Charles Gates Dawes (US)
1924: prize not handed out
1923: prize not handed out
1922: Fridtjof Nansen (Norway)
1921: Karl Hjalmar Branting (Sweden) and Christian Lous Lange (Norway)
1920: Leon Victor Auguste Bourgeois (France)
1919: Thomas Woodrow Wilson (US)
1918: Prize not handed out
1917: International Committee of the Red Cross
1916: Prize not handed out
1915: Prize not handed out
1914: Prize not handed out
1913: Henri La Fontaine (Belgium)
1912: Elihu Root (US)
1911: Tobias Michael Carel Asser (The Netherlands) and Alfred Hermann Fried (Austria)
1910: Permanent International Peace Bureau
1909: Auguste Marie François Beernaert (Belgium) and Paul Henri Benjamin Balluet, Baron d'Estournelles de Constant de Rebecque (France)
1908: Klas Pontus Arnoldson (Sweden) and Fredrik Bajer (Denmark)
1907: Ernesto Teodoro Moneta (Italy) and Louis Renault (France)
1906: Theodore Roosevelt (US)
1905: Baroness Bertha Sophie Felicita von Suttner (Austria)
1904: Institute of International Law
1903: William Randal Cremer (Britain)
1902: Elie Ducommun (Switzerland) and Charles Albert Gobat (Switzerland)
1901: Jean Henri Dunant (Switzerland) and Frederic Passy (France)