Nobel Peace Prize 2024 awarded to Japan’s Nihon Hidankyo

Japanese atomic bomb survivor organization Nihon Hidankyo won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in recognition of the organization’s efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee said the grassroots movement, which was established in 1956 in response to the atomic bomb attacks of August 1945, had “worked tirelessly” to raise awareness about the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of using nuclear weapons.

“Gradually, a powerful international norm developed, stigmatising the use of nuclear weapons as morally unacceptable. This norm has become known as ‘the nuclear taboo’. The testimony of the Hibakusha – the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – is unique in this larger context,” it added.

The committee said that while it is encouraging that no nuclear weapon has been used in war in nearly 80 years, it is “alarming that today this taboo against the use of nuclear weapons is under pressure.”

The Norwegian Nobel Committee said it had not been able to contact Nihon Hidankyo yet, but that “it hoped to do so very soon.”

The committee has previously sought to spotlight the issue of nuclear weapons, awarding the peace prize to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) in 2017.

A presentation of the Nobel Prizes will take place in Oslo, Norway on Dec. 10, a date which marks the anniversary of the death of Swedish inventor and philanthropist Alfred Nobel.

Winners of the Nobel Prize typically receive 11 million Swedish krona ($1.06 million), although multiple winners share the sum.

Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023 for “her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all,” the awards committee said at the time.

Mohammadi, who is known for her work as deputy director and spokesperson of the Defenders of Human Rights Center, was reportedly sentenced in June to an additional year in prison over her activism.

Iran’s government did not acknowledge her additional sentencing at the time, according to The Associated Press.

The Defenders of the Human Rights Center is an organization that promotes human rights and advocates for free and fair elections and the due process of law. It was cofounded by Shirin Ebadi, the only other Iranian to have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.