Nobel laureate ICAN, atomic bomb survivor to jointly accept prize

Geneva, Oct 26 (IANS) The 2017 Nobel Peace Prize winner, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), said on Thursday that an 85-year-old survivor of the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima will jointly accept this year's prize.

Setsuko Thurlow, who was 13 years old when the US dropped the bomb on her city in 1945, will receive the award together with ICAN's executive director Beatrice Fihn at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo on December 10, Xinhua reported.

Thurlow has been a leading figure in Geneva-based ICAN since its launch in 2007.

ICAN said she played a pivotal role in the UN negotiations that led to the adoption of the treaty outlawing nuclear weapons in July.

"For more than seven decades, she has campaigned against the bomb," said ICAN.

The pro-disarmament group said that two other survivors of the atomic bombings will also attend the prize ceremony, as will survivors of nuclear testing.

The UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was opened for signature on September 20, and has 53 signatories so far. Once 50 nations have ratified or acceded to the treaty, it enters into force.

To accelerate Japan's surrender in World War II, the U.S. forces dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945 respectively. Japan surrendered to the Allied Forces on August 15, 1945, bringing an end to World War II.

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