- Japanese atomic bomb survivor movement Nihon Hidankyo won the Nobel Peace Prize 2024 in recognition of the organization’s efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons.
- The awards committee said that the grassroots movement had “worked tirelessly” to raise awareness about the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of using nuclear weapons.
- A presentation of the Nobel Prizes will take place in Oslo, Norway on Dec. 10, a date which marks the anniversary of the death of Swedish inventor and philanthropist Alfred Nobel.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee said the grassroots movement, which was established in 1956 in response to the atomic bomb attacks of August 1945, had “worked tirelessly” to raise awareness about the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of using nuclear weapons.
“Gradually, a powerful international norm developed, stigmatising the use of nuclear weapons as morally unacceptable. This norm has become known as ‘the nuclear taboo’. The testimony of the Hibakusha – the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – is unique in this larger context,” it added.
Congratulations are in order for Nihon Hidankyo, the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations. The Nobel Peace Prize has for the first time in at least six years gone to a group of people who work to reduce warmaking, people who in fact seek to abolish nuclear weapons. Nihon Hidankyo has relentlessly done the work of educating the world, thanklessly, for many years. This prize should be celebrated far and wide.
In recent years, nuclear weapons have been the one strong point for the Nobel Committee, the one area of overlap between what they have treated as the purpose of the prize and the actual original purpose of the prize. In 2017, the prize was awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.
This year’s award is being given to Nihon Hidankyo “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.”
https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/F8EA8555-BF30-4D39-82C6-6D241CC41B74
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2024/press-release/
https://www.oikoumene.org/news/wcc-welcomes-nobel-peace-prize-award-to-nihon-hidankyo
https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/10/11/nobel-increases-pressure-states-join-nuclear-weapons-ban
This post was originally published on Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards.