The Norwegian Nobel Committee has awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2024 to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese group of atomic bomb survivors for “extraordinary efforts” to “achieve a world free of nuclear weapons”.
The winner was announced at a ceremony in Oslo on October 11, for the group, which “contributed greatly to the establishment of the nuclear taboo”. The group has campaigned over the years for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Norwegian Nobel Committee Chair Joergen Watne Frydnes said the Prize was given to the 1956 group “for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again”.
As per the Nobel Committe, the grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, also known as Hibakusha, is receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again. The extraordinary efforts of Nihon Hidankyo and other representatives of the Hibakusha have contributed greatly to the establishment of a nuclear taboo.
It said that the fates of those who survived the infernos of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were long concealed and neglected. In 1956, local Hibakusha associations along with victims of nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific formed the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organisations. This name was shortened in Japanese to Nihon Hidankyo. It would become the largest and most influential Hibakusha organisation in Japan.
The Nobel committe said that next year will mark 80 years since two American atomic bombs killed an estimated 120 000 inhabitants of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A comparable number died of burn and radiation injuries in the months and years that followed.
In awarding this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to Nihon Hidankyo, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said it wishes to honour all atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki who, despite physical suffering and painful memories, have chosen to use their costly experience to cultivate hope and engagement for peace.
“They help us to describe the indescribable, to think the unthinkable, and to somehow grasp the incomprehensible pain and suffering caused by nuclear weapons,” it said. As per the Norwegian Nobel Institute 286 candidates had been nominated for this year’s peace prize, a number comprising 197 individuals and 89 organisations.
Alfred Nobel specified that the awarding decision must be made by a committee of five people, appointed by the Norwegian parliament.
As per the Swedish innovator’s will, the Peace Prize is being awarded to “done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses”.
According to the scientist’s last will, this prize if being awarded in Oslo, not Stockholm, unlike other awards.
Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi won the prize in 2023, when she was honoured for her work fighting the oppression of women in Iran. The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded 105 times to 142 Nobel Prize laureates between 1901 and 2024, 111 individuals and 31 organisations.
Since then the International Committee of the Red Cross has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize three times (in 1917, 1944 and 1963), and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize two times (in 1954 and 1981), there are 28 individual organisations which have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Alfred Nobel showed a big interest in social issues and was engaged in the peace movement. His acquaintance with Bertha von Suttner, who was a driving force in the international peace movement in Europe and later awarded the peace prize, influenced his views on peace. Peace was the fifth and final prize area that Nobel mentioned in his will.
(with inputs from ANI)
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