Paper Crane Project

In 2012 ICAN youth campaigners from Hiroshima launched a project to send 1,000 hand-folded paper cranes to the president or prime minister of every UN member state – a total of more than 190,000 cranes. In return for this gift, they sought a message of support for a treaty banning nuclear weapons. They said that more needed to be done to ensure that no other city ever experienced the horrors of nuclear weapons.

Briefing paper about the project →

Official responses

United Nations: Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General
Afghanistan: Hamid Karzai, President
Australia: Julia Gillard, Prime Minister
Belgium: Elio Di Rupo, Prime Minister
Costa Rica: Laura Chinchilla, President
Cyprus: Demetris Christofias, President
Finland: Sauli Niinistö, President
France: Pierre Besnard, Chief of Cabinet
Greece: Karolos Papoulias, President
Kazakhstan: Nursultan Nazarbayev, President
Luxembourg: Jean-Claude Juncker, Prime Minister
Marshall Islands: Christopher J. Loeak, President
Mexico: Enrique Peña Nieto, President
Mozambique: Armando Emilio Guebuza, President
Poland: Sławomir Rybicki, Secretary of State
Slovenia: Danilo Türk, President
Spain: Jorge Moragas, Director of the Cabinet
Switzerland: Evelyn Widmer Schlumpf, President
Thailand: Surapong Tovichakchaikul, Deputy Prime Minister
Tunisia: Dr Mohamed Moncef Marzouki, President
Vanuatu: Iolu Johnson Abil, President

Why paper cranes?

Paper cranes are a traditional Japanese symbol for good health. Since the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, they have also symbolized support for a nuclear-weapon-free world. The two bombings claimed more than 210,000 lives by the end of 1945. Many more people have died from radiation-related illnesses in the decades since. We hope that this project will help to demonstrate the overwhelming support worldwide for a treaty banning nuclear weapons.