COPENHAGEN, 6 October 2017 – The President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, Austrian parliamentarian Christine Muttonen, today welcomed the announcement of the Norwegian Nobel Committee to award the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and offered congratulations on behalf of the Assembly to the civil society coalition for its achievement.

“In these times of rising tensions around the world, it is an inspiration to see a global coalition come together for the purpose of promoting a humanitarian vision of international relations and a future that does not include nuclear weapons,” said President Muttonen. “I thank ICAN for its tireless efforts, which resulted this year in the historic Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and offer my sincere congratulations on receiving the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize.”

OSCE PA President Muttonen also serves as Co-President of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (PNND). In August she spoke at a conference in Astana entitled “Confronting Nuclear Dangers,” where she stressed that the international community must continue to push for the elimination of nuclear weapons as called for in the nuclear ban treaty agreed to by 122 countries in New York on 7 July 2017.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced today that its annual peace prize would be awarded to ICAN “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.” The award will be presented to ICAN at a ceremony in Oslo on 10 December.