The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the Japanese anti-nuclear group Nihon Hidankyo, a civil movement of survivors of the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, also known as hibakusha, AFP reports.
"The group received the award for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through testimony that nuclear weapons should never be used again," said Jørgen Vatne Friednes, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo.
"Nihon Hidankyo's extraordinary efforts ... have contributed significantly to the establishment of the nuclear taboo. It is therefore worrying that today this taboo against the use of nuclear weapons is under pressure," said Fridnes.
The Nobel Committee expressed concern that the international "nuclear taboo" that developed in response to the atomic bomb attacks of August 1945 is "under pressure."
Last year, the prestigious prize was awarded to jailed women's rights campaigner Narges Mohammadi for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran.
The award is accompanied by a gold medal, a certificate and a cash sum of USD 1 million.
The award will be presented at a ceremony in Oslo on 10 December, the anniversary of the death in 1896 of the prizes' founder, Swedish inventor and philanthropist Alfred Nobel.
The Peace Prize is the only Nobel Prize to be awarded in Oslo, the other disciplines being announced in Stockholm. | BGNES
