Antinuclear

In their hands will be precious cargo: Australia’s first Nobel Peace Prize. The medal was awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) in 2017 in recognition of their work on the adoption of the global treaty to ban nuclear weapons.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee said at the time that the group had been recognised “for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons”.

Gem Romuld, ICAN’s Australian director, said the group’s work remains unfinished. An overarching purpose is to urge our government to sign on the nuclear weapons ban treaty,” she said.

“Sixty countries have so far signed on…And many financial institutions are starting to exclude nuclear weapons producers from their investments.

“This is the first treaty to clearly outlaw nuclear weapons, and to set out a clear pathway for their total elimination. And it is absolutely vital that Australia get behind this.”

Leading the Nobel Peace Ride, Ms Romuld said the journey gave a nod to ICAN’s origin story.

“We’re heading out from the steps of Parliament House where ICAN was launched 10 years ago,” she said.

A conversation between campaigners in the Melbourne inner-city suburb of Carlton in 2006 planted the seed for what would later become a global movement. The group officially launched at Victoria’s parliament house in 2007 before expanding to a coalition of 468 grassroots non-governmental groups working towards a UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

The dream was achieved in July 2017 when a legally-binding treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons was adopted in a vote by 122 nations, but Australia was not among them.

Ms Romuld said with a new Foreign Minister in the form of Marise Payne, there is renewed hope Australia could join the ranks of nations who have signed the treaty………