ICAN awarded Nobel Peace Prize
Quakers in Britain have congratulated the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) on being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Paul Parker, Recording Clerk for Quakers in Britain welcomed the award with warm good wishes. In a letter to Beatrice Fihn, Executive Director of ICAN, he wrote, “This award could not come at a more appropriate moment. The Treaty that could rid the world of nuclear weapons offers hope and reason amid escalating threats of mass destruction between nuclear states.
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Disarmament is not a pipe dream, but an urgent humanitarian necessity.
- International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
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“Quaker regard for the sanctity of all life leads us to say that all killing is wrong. Our representative body, Meeting for Sufferings declared in 1955 that, 'To rely on the possession of nuclear weapons as a deterrent is faithless; to use them is a sin'." (Meeting for Sufferings, 1955, Quaker faith & practice 24.41).
Quaker Peace & Social Witness is a partner of ICAN that is a coalition of non-governmental organisations in one hundred countries.
A statement from ICAN said, “Disarmament is not a pipe dream, but an urgent humanitarian necessity."
“This prize is a tribute to the tireless efforts of many millions of campaigners… and also to the survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – the hibakusha – and victims of nuclear test explosions around the world, whose searing testimonies and unstinting advocacy were instrumental in securing this landmark agreement."
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was adopted in July by two-thirds of the 193 UN member states. The UK Government refused to sign, saying instead, it is committed to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology. Quakers are being encouraged to write to their MPs to urge the UK Government to sign the Treaty.