The 2024 Nobel Peace Prize winner has been announced. The Norwegian Nobel Committee has awarded its 2024 Peace Prize to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese organization.
Nobel Committee Chair Berit Reiss-Andersen in a statement said the organization has been chosen to receive the 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.
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Andersen praised the “extraordinary efforts” of the group whose campaign has “contributed greatly to the establishment of the nuclear taboo”.
The organization, also known as Hibakusha, was formed by survivors of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
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“The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the 2024 #NobelPeacePrize to the Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo. This grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, also known as Hibakusha, is receiving the 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 statement reads.
Around 80,000 people died instantly when the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Three days later, the US dropped a second bomb on Nagasaki, further killing some 70,000 people.
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Nihon Hidankyo
In the years that followed, tens of thousands were killed in both cities by the radiation from the blast.
Nihon Hidankyo in response to the atomic bomb attacks of August 1945, arose as a global movement whose members have worked tirelessly to raise awareness about the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of using nuclear weapons.
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Gradually, a powerful international norm developed, stigmatizing 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- are historical witnesses who have helped to generate and consolidate widespread opposition to nuclear weapons around the world.
They have been involved in drawing on personal stories, creating educational campaigns based on their own experience, and issuing urgent warnings against the spread and use of nuclear weapons.
Nihon Hidankyo has provided thousands of witness accounts, issued resolutions and public appeals, and sent annual delegations to the United Nations and a variety of peace conferences to remind the world of the pressing need for nuclear disarmament.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee highlighted that the extraordinary efforts of Nihon Hidankyo and other representatives of the Hibakusha have contributed greatly to the establishment of the nuclear taboo.
“In awarding this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to Nihon Hidankyo, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to honor all survivors who, despite physical suffering and painful memories, have chosen to use their costly experience to cultivate hope and engagement for peace,” the committee added.
Past winners
This year’s prize joins a distinguished list of Peace Prizes that the Committee has previously awarded to champions of nuclear disarmament and arms control.
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Friday’s prize is the 105th to be awarded since 1901. The Japanese organization, the 141st laureate, will receive a cash award of around $1 million.
Other past winners include Kenya’s Wangari Maathai who was the first female professor in Kenya and the first African woman to be awarded the Prize.
The late Wangari Mathai was recognized for founding the Green Belt Movement, which led to the planting of millions of trees.
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