The 2024 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Japanese grassroots group Nihon Hidankyo for its work to “obtain a world freed from nuclear weapons,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee stated in a Friday press launch.
The group is made up of Hibakusha, often known as survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs assault by the U.S. that killed some 120,000 folks in August 1945. (A comparable variety of others handed as a result of burn and radiation accidents from the assault.) Nihon Hidankyo was chosen for the prize, partly, for the function their private testimony has performed in “stigmatizing using nuclear weapons” as unacceptable.
“The Hibakusha assist us to explain the indescribable, to assume the unthinkable, and to by some means grasp the incomprehensible ache and struggling brought on by nuclear weapons,” stated Norwegian Nobel Committee Chair Jorgen Watne Frydnes through the Friday announcement.
Nihon Hidankyo is the one nation-wide group of atomic bomb survivors. Since its founding in 1956, the group has fought for a nuclear weapon ban, prevention of a nuclear struggle, and a Japanese regulation that would supply compensation to Hibakusha survivors and households. It additionally frequently sends Hibakusha to the U.N. and different nations to clarify what it was prefer to survive the atomic bomb assault.
Regardless of a world push for nuclear disarmament, practically 13,000 nuclear weapons owned by 9 nations—america, Russia, France, China, the UK, Pakistan, India, Israel, and North Korea—stay. No nuclear weapon has been utilized in struggle in practically 80 years, however some nations, like Russia, are rising their nuclear arsenal.
“The extraordinary efforts of Nihon Hidankyo and different representatives of the Hibakusha have contributed drastically to the institution of the nuclear taboo. It’s due to this fact alarming that at the moment this taboo towards using nuclear weapons is underneath stress,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee stated.
Toshiyuki Mimaki, co-chair of Nihon Hidankyo, stated that the prize would assist the group in its struggle to abolish nuclear weapons. “It has been stated that due to nuclear weapons, the world maintains peace. However nuclear weapons can be utilized by terrorists,” Mimaki informed the press.
The Japanese group was chosen from 286 nominations submitted this yr—89 of which had been organizations. Nominations had been submitted by Jan. 31. Details about different nominees for the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize received’t be revealed till after 50 years.
Different people and organizations in the identical discipline of labor as Nihon Hidankyo, together with the Worldwide Marketing campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, have additionally taken house the Nobel Peace Prize in earlier years.
Final yr, jailed Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi received the Nobel Peace Prize for her struggle towards the oppression of Iranian girls.
Winners are awarded a medal, diploma, and 11 million Swedish kroner, the equal of barely greater than $1 million. The ceremony for the award can be held in Oslo on Dec. 10.