Antinuclear

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, or ICAN, was set up a decade ago in Melbourne. ICAN’s current director, Swedish lawyer Beatrice Fihn, received the award at a gala ceremony in Oslo, Norway last week.

Geneva-based Fihn is one of just three salaried staff — the other two are in Australia — on the ICAN payroll. For an organisation that knows how to survive on almost nothing, the $1.42 million that comes with the prize promises a long future.

In early October, when the prize was first announced, a spokesman for the Prime Minister acknowledged “the commitment of ICAN and its supporters to promoting awareness of the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons”, adding that banning these weapons was not the answer. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who a fortnight earlier stressed Australia’s commitment to “a world free of nuclear weapons”, made no comment. She and the PM remain silent.

To put ICAN’s achievement into context, five months ago this tiny organisation managed to win the support of enough UN member countries — 122 of them — to vote into existence the legally binding Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which aims to eliminate these weapons.

Every Latin American country, including Brazil, Argentina and Mexico, voted for the treaty. So did Ireland, Austria, Switzerland, Finland, nearly all African countries, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and most of the Middle East including perennial antagonists Saudi Arabia and Iran.

In our region the treaty got the support of New Zealand, Pacific island nations, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar and Bangladesh. We alone opposed it…….http://www.themercury.com.au/news/opinion/talking-point-pm-silent-on-nobel-prize-when-world-needs-him-to-speak-up/news-story/b9bd97c4b027771f8ea8a7557f50b599