Nihon Hidankyo, a group of atomic bomb survivors, wins the Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded on Friday to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese organization of survivors of the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for its activism against nuclear weapons.

Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said the prize was awarded because the “taboo against the use of nuclear weapons is under pressure”.

In September, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a change in his country’s nuclear doctrine, in a move aimed at dissuading the West from allowing Ukraine to attack Russia with longer-range weapons. It appeared to significantly lower the threshold for possible use of Russia’s nuclear arsenal.

Watne Frydnes said the 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 commitment to peace.”

The president of Hidankyo’s Hiroshima branch, Tomoyuki Mimaki, who was standing in the town hall for the announcement, cheered and cried when he heard the news.

“Is it really true? Amazing!” Mimaki shouted.

Efforts to eradicate nuclear weapons have been honored in the past by the Nobel committee. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons won the Peace Prize in 2017, and in 1995 Joseph Rotblat and the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs won for “their efforts to diminish the role of weapons nuclear weapons in international politics and, in the long term, to eliminate these weapons”.

This year’s prize has been awarded in a context of devastating conflicts that are raging in the world, especially in the Middle East, Ukraine and Sudan.

“It is very clear that threats to use nuclear weapons are putting pressure on the important international norm, the taboo on the use of nuclear weapons,” Watne Frydnes said in response to a question about whether Russia’s rhetoric around the nuclear weapons in their invasion of Ukraine. influenced this year’s decision.

“And so it is alarming to see how threats of use are also undermining this norm. Maintaining a strong international taboo against use is crucial for all of humanity,” he added.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told X that “the specter of Hiroshima and Nagasaki still hangs over humanity. This makes Nihon Hidankyo’s defense invaluable. This Nobel Peace Prize sends a powerful message. We have a duty to remember. And an even greater duty to protect future generations from the horrors of nuclear war.”

Alfred Nobel declared in his will that the peace prize should be awarded for “the best or greatest work for brotherhood among nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and for the celebration and promotion of peace congresses”.

Last year’s award went to imprisoned Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi for her advocacy of women’s rights and democracy, and against the death penalty. The Nobel committee said it was also in recognition of the “hundreds of thousands of people” who came out against “the Iranian theocratic regime’s policies of discrimination and oppression against women”.

In a year of conflict, there had been speculation before the announcement that the Norwegian Nobel Committee that decides the winner would choose not to award a prize this year. The award has been held a total of 19 times since 1901, including during the two world wars. The last time it was not awarded was in 1972.

In the Middle East, steadily increasing levels of violence over the past year have killed tens of thousands of people, including thousands of children and women. The war, sparked by a bloody incursion into Israel by Hamas-led militants on October 7, 2023 that left around 1,200 people dead, mostly civilians, has spread to the wider region.

Last week, Israel sent ground troops into Lebanon to pursue Hezbollah militants firing rockets at Israel, while Iran, which backs both Hamas and Hezbollah, fired a barrage of ballistic missiles at Israel. Israel has yet to respond, but its defense minister vowed this week that its retaliation would be both devastating and surprising.

The war in Gaza has killed more than 42,000 people, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and fighters in its count, but says more than half are women and children. In Lebanon, more than 1,400 people have been killed, with thousands more injured and around a million displaced since mid-September, when the Israeli military dramatically expanded its offensive against Hezbollah.

The war in Ukraine, triggered by the invasion of Russia, is heading into its third winter with a massive loss of human life on both sides.

The UN has confirmed more than 11,000 Ukrainian civilians dead, but this does not account for up to 25,000 Ukrainians believed to have died during the Russian seizure of the city of Mariupol or unreported deaths in the occupied territories.

The Nobel Prizes carry a cash prize of 11 million Swedish kroner ($1 million). Unlike other Nobel Prizes that are selected and announced in Stockholm, founder Alfred Nobel decreed that the Peace Prize be decided and awarded in Oslo by the five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee.

The Nobel season ends on Monday with the announcement of the winner of the economics prize, officially known as the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.

By MIKE CORDER and ELENA BECATOROS, The Associated Press

Corder reports from The Hague, Netherlands, and Becatoros in Athens, Greece. Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo, Lori Hinnant in Paris and Vanessa Gera in Warsaw, Poland contributed.