The 2024 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyowith the aim of “honoring all survivors of the atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki who, despite physical suffering and painful memories, chose to use their costly experience to cultivate hope and commitment to peace.”
“One day, the survivors of the atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki will no longer be with us as witnesses of history“, dictates the Nobel declaration, “but with a strong culture of memory and constant commitment, the new generations in Japan transmit the experience and the message of the witnesses. They inspire and educate people around the world. In this way they help maintain the nuclear tabooa prerequisite for a peaceful future for humanity
The Norwegian Nobel Committee made its selection from a list including 285 candidates (196 people and 89 organizations), recognizing the effort in the search for the common good this year. Among them, Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the UN, Pope Francis, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Middle East (UNRWA) stand out.
In awarding this year’s prize #NobelPeacePrix at Nihon Hidankyo, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to honor all survivors of the atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki who, despite physical suffering and painful memories, chose to use their costly experiences to cultivate hope and… pic.twitter.com/TZUBxODcTj
– The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 11, 2024
In these times of full tension in the Middle East, this Nobel Prize wants to remind us of the importance of not repeating the mistakes of the past. This is why he wanted to congratulate himself that “for almost 80 years, no nuclear weapon has been used in a war”.
“In response to the atomic bomb attacks of August 1945“, a global movement emerged whose members worked tirelessly to raise awareness of the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of the use of nuclear weapons,” he dictates, “little by little, a powerful international norm developed that stigmatizes the use of nuclear weapons as morally unacceptable. This standard is known as ‘the nuclear taboo’.
This award is not the result of chance. In 2025, it will be 80 years since the United States dropped two bombs that killed some 120,000 Japanese, not counting the approximate number of deaths in the following months and years from burns and radiation.
On behalf of Alfred Nobel, they recalled that current nuclear weapons have a much greater destructive power, capable of killing millions of people, and also having a catastrophic impact on the climate. “A nuclear war could destroy our civilization,” they remember.
