The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)  was awarded the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize Friday.

“We live in a world where the risk of nuclear weapons being used is greater than it has been for a long time,” said Berit Reiss-Andersen, leader of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, in announcing the award.

News of the coalition’s peace prize comes as U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened Iran and North Korea about their nuclear abilities.  The U.S. leader will likely decertify the nuclear deal with Iran, a pact he has called the  “worst deal ever negotiated.” Trump also recently suggested at the U.N. General Assembly that he may be forced to “totally destroy” North Korea over its nuclear program.  

“This is a time of great global tension, when fiery rhetoric could all too easily lead us, inexorably, to unspeakable horror.  The specter of nuclear conflict looms large once more.  If ever there were a moment for nations to declare their unequivocal opposition to nuclear weapons, that moment is now,” ICAN said in a statement on Facebook.

The Nobel committee said in its statement that ICAN won the peace prize “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”.

ICAN  is a coalition of non-governmental organizations in one hundred countries promoting adherence to and implementation of the United Nations nuclear weapon ban treaty. The global agreement was adopted in New York on 7 July 2017.  The deal, however, did not include nuclear-armed states such as the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France.
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