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.
According to the Nobel Committee, 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.
As per the Nobel Committee, 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 stated 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 committee 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.
It said, ‘They help us to describe the indescribable, to think the unthinkable, and to somehow grasp the pain and suffering caused by nuclear weapons’. 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. According to the Swedish innovator’s will, the Peace Prize is being awarded to done the most or the best work for fraternity between countries, for the abolition of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses’. 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.
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