{"id":2132,"date":"2017-10-06T02:46:39","date_gmt":"2017-10-06T09:46:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=2132"},"modified":"2017-10-06T02:58:47","modified_gmt":"2017-10-06T09:58:47","slug":"nobel-peace-prize-2017-international-campaign-to-abolish-nuclear-weapons-wins-award-live-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=2132","title":{"rendered":"“Nobel peace prize 2017: International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons wins award \u2013 live”, The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jon Henley,, London, Friday 6 October 2017<\/p>\n

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(Norwegian Nobel Committee says award made in recognition of work to draw attention to catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons)<\/p>\n

The committee\u2019s decision comes at a critical time when the US president, Donald Trump, has threatened to decertify and unravel the Iran nuclear deal, which could trigger a second nuclear standoff in the midst of North Korean crisis, writes my colleague Saeed Kamali Dehghan<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

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Supporters of the Iran nuclear agreement, which settled a decade-long dispute over Tehran\u2019s nuclear programme and averted the risk of yet another war in the Middle East, have argued it is vital to preserve it at the time of simmering tensions with North Korea, which has escalated the crisis by conducing its sixth nuclear test and a series of intermediate and intercontinental missile tests.<\/p>\n

Trump has reportedly decided to decertify Iran\u2019s compliance with the landmark nuclear deal next week. On Thursday, he told a meeting of US military leaders that Tehran was not living up to the \u201cspirit of the agreement\u201d and cryptically added they were witnessing \u201cthe calm before the storm\u201d.<\/p>\n

The European Union, in contrast, has said that it is doing everything it can to salvage the deal in the event of a US withdrawal. The EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said last month after facilitating a meeting of foreign ministers in New York, that Iran was abiding by the agreement and \u201cthere is no need to reopen the agreement because it\u2019s fully delivering\u201d.<\/p>\n

In remarks which appeared to be aimed at Trump\u2019s threats, she said: \u201cThe agreement is being implemented. It\u2019s working. It\u2019s delivering. It\u2019s not for one party or the other to certify this. It\u2019s for the IAEA, with its technical independent role, to provide us reports and it\u2019s for the entire Joint Commission to monitor the implementation of all this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sir Richard Dalton, a former British ambassador to Tehran, said this award is \u201ca challenge to the International Community, led by the UN Security Council, to protect this historic non-proliferation agreement [Iran deal], which is vital for regional peace, from its detractors.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

10:37 AM – Oct 5, 2017<\/p>\n

Fihn has a nice line in nuclear non-proliferation humour. This was one of her tweets yesterday, on the nine nuclear powers who boycotted the treaty negotiations:<\/p>\n

Nine nuclear-armed states walked in to a bar, because it was set too low.<\/p>\n

ICAN been \u201csounding the alarm over the massive dangers posed by nuclear weapons and campaigning for a global ban\u201d for the past decade, the AFP news agency reported when it interviewed the group\u2019s head this week.<\/p>\n

Although the nuclear treaty was a significant victory, actual disarmament is still a long way off. \u201cWe\u2019re not done yet… The job isn\u2019t done until nuclear weapons are gone,\u201d the organisations head, Beatrice Fihn, told AFP.<\/p>\n

Pointing to the current nuclear standoff between Washington and Pyongyang as \u201ca wake-up call\u201d, she insisted on the urgent need to disarm the world\u2019s 15,000 or so nuclear weapons. \u201cNuclear weapons have the risk of literally ending the world. As long as they exist, the risk will be there, and eventually our luck will run out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Based in the offices of the World Council of Churches in Geneva, ICAN works with 468 non-governmental organisations across 101 countries, including rights, development, environmental and peace groups.<\/p>\n

It has an annual budget of around $1 million and is funded by private donations as well as the European Union and countries including Norway<\/a>, Switzerland, Germany and the Vatican.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more countries we can rally to reject nuclear weapons and the more public opinion changes to think that this is unacceptable, the harder it is going to be for the nuclear-armed states to justify it,\u201d Fihn told AFP.<\/p>\n

The Norwegian Nobel Committee\u2019s choice amounts to a reprimand to the world\u2019s nine nuclear-armed powers, all of whom boycotted the negotiations for the treaty \u2013 reached in July at the United Nations<\/a>\u2013 and described the treaty as dangerous.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The treaty was endorsed by 122 countries at the UN headquarters in New York after months of talks an in the face of strong opposition from the nuclear-armed states and their allies.<\/p>\n

None of the nine countries that possess nuclear weapons – the United States, Russia, Britain, China, France, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel – took part in the negotiations.<\/p>\n

And the treaty will only enter into force when 50 countries have signed and ratified it, a process that could take months or years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Updated

Well that was a surprise. Most of the pre-announcement chatter had been predicting the winners would be Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, and Federica Mogherini, the EU\u2019s foreign policy chief, for their part in the Iran nuclear deal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Instead the committee has chosen ICAN, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, a global group working to promote adherence to, and full implementation of, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.<\/p>\n

The campaign, which helped bring about the treaty, was launched in 2007 and today counts 468 partner organisations in 101 countries. The treaty is the first legally binding international agreement to comprehensively prohibit nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n

ICAN anti-nuclear weapons campaign wins 2017 Nobel Peace prize<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons has been awarded the 2107 Nobel Peace prize.<\/p>\n

The chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Berit Reiss-Andersen, said the award had been made in recognition of the group\u2019s work \u201cto draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Guardian<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jon Henley,, London, Friday 6 October 2017 (Norwegian Nobel Committee says award made in recognition of work to draw attention to catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons) The committee\u2019s decision comes at a critical time when the US president, Donald Trump, has threatened to decertify and unravel the Iran nuclear deal, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2132"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2132"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2135,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2132\/revisions\/2135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}