Oct. 6 (UPI) -- The 2017 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to the Switzerland-based anti-nuclear weapons advocacy group International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee said ICAN received the top award for "its work to 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."
The panel said the group is a coalition of non-governmental organizations working as a single unit to abolish nuclear weapons under international law. It added that ICAN has been a driving force in persuading 108 nations, thus far, to commit to the Humanitarian Pledge, by which countries promise to cooperate to "stigmatize, prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons."
ICAN has been a prominent proponent of the United Nations' Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, to which 122 counties agreed in July. The treaty will be binding under international law when 50 countries ratify it.
The Nobel Peace Prize will be presented in a ceremony in Oslo in December.
Friday's prize was the fifth given out this week -- with others in chemistry, physics, literature and medicine given out earlier this week. The final prize, for economics, will be awarded Monday.
BREAKING NEWS The 2017 Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) @nuclearban #NobelPrize pic.twitter.com/I5PUiQfFzs
- The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 6, 2017
