UN chief congratulates ICAN on winning Nobel Peace Prize

ICAN won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize Friday for its “efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons”, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced.
(Photo by DFID – UK Department for International Development)

UNITED NATIONS— UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday congratulated the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) on winning the Nobel Peace Prize, urging all countries to make “greater commitment for a world free of nuclear weapons”.

ICAN won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize Friday for its “efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons”, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced.

“This prize recognizes the determined efforts of civil society to highlight the unconscionable humanitarian and environmental consequences that would result if they were ever used again,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN secretary-general, said in a statement.

“Nuclear disarmament has been an objective for the United Nations since the very first General Assembly resolution in 1946, which established the goal of ridding the world of nuclear weapons and all weapons of mass destruction,” the statement said.