The 2024 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo, a group formed by survivors of the atomic bombs from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Hiroshima bomb PHOTO: Profimedia
A popular movement of survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, also known as Hibakusha, won the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, October 11. The Peace Prize is the only Nobel Prize awarded in Oslo, the other prizes being awarded in Stockholm.
“These historical witnesses helped generate and strengthen widespread opposition to nuclear weapons around the world, drawing on personal stories, creating educational campaigns based on their own experience, and issuing urgent warnings against the spread and use of nuclear weapons. Hibakusha helps us describe the indescribable, think the unimaginable, and somehow understand the incomprehensible pain and suffering caused by nuclear weapons.” it is stated in the Nobel Committee’s communiqué.
In awarding this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to the Nihon Hidankyo organization, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to emphasize an encouraging fact: “no nuclear weapon has been used in war for nearly 80 years.”
“The extraordinary efforts of the Nihon Hidankyo and other representatives of the Hibakusha have contributed enormously to the establishment of a taboo against nuclear weapons. It is therefore alarming that this taboo against the use of nuclear weapons is under pressure today.
Nuclear powers are modernizing and improving their arsenals; new countries appear to be preparing to acquire nuclear weapons; and threats to use nuclear weapons are made in ongoing conflicts. At this point in human history, it’s worth reminding ourselves what nuclear weapons are: the most destructive weapons the world has ever known.” says the Nobel Committee.
In 2023, it went to the Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi, imprisoned in her country, for her fight against “the compulsory veil for women and the death penalty”.
Nobel Prizes awarded in 2024
On Monday, October 7, the medicine prize was awarded to Americans Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for the discovery of microRNA, a new class of tiny RNA molecules.
On Tuesday, October 8, the prize for physics was awarded to British-born Canadian Geoffrey Hinton and American John Hopfield who, although working on “machine learning”, essential to the development of artificial intelligence, sound the alarm about this technology which, in in their opinion, risks getting out of control.
The Nobel Prize for Chemistry was awarded on Wednesday, October 9, to the American David Baker and a duo consisting of another American, John Jumper, and the British Demis Hassabis, for revealing the secrets of proteins, with the help of AI and computer science.
The Nobel Prize for literature for the year 2024 was awarded on Thursday, October 10, to the 53-year-old South Korean writer Han Kang. She became the first person from South Korea to win this prestigious prize and, at the same time, the 18th woman in the history of the Nobel for literature.
As usual, the economics prize, added to the original Nobel Prizes in 1969, will close the ball next Monday.
The Nobel prizes, which consist of a diploma, a gold medal and a check worth 11 million Swedish kroner (about 970,000 euros), will be officially awarded on December 10.
