ICAN wins 2017 Nobel Peace Prize

Beatrice Fihn, Executive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) receives a bottle of champagne from her husband Will Fihm Ramsay (R) next to Daniel Hogsta, coordinator, while they celebrate after ICAN won the Nobel Peace Prize 2017, in Geneva, Switzerland October 6, 2017. [Photo/Agencies]

OSLO -- The International Campaign to Abolish 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.

"The organization is receiving the award 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," Berit Reiss-Andersen, chairperson of the five-member committee, said in her announcement.

Nuclear weapons are not yet subject to any international legal prohibition such as land mines, cluster munitions and biological and chemical weapons face, she said. "Through its work, ICAN has helped to fill this legal gap."

ICAN, a coalition of non-governmental organizations from around 100 different countries, "has been a driving force in prevailing upon the world's nations to pledge to cooperate with all relevant stakeholders in efforts to stigmatize, prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons," Reiss-Andersen said.