ICAN, the International Campaign for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 2017, will be in Hanoi during the second summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un.

On November 8, 2017, ICAN’s Executive Director, Ms. Beatrice Fihn, received an email from a campaigner who volunteered with one of our partner organisations, IPPNW Costa Rica. This confidential email informed Ms. Fihn of an alleged sexual assault that was perpetrated in 2014 against the campaigner by a former head of state from Costa Rica.

ICAN wishes to congratulate the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, Nadia Murad and Dr Denis Mukwege. Both laureates thoroughly deserve this honour through their incredible work to address sexual violence in conflict, and we look forward to working with them as Nobel laureates dedicated to a peaceful world safe from both the threats of nuclear weapons and the use of sexual violence in war, both fundamental violations of international law. The Nobel Committee has rightly chosen to highlight the role of women this year in giving the award to Nadia and Denis, and it is great to see women like Nadia leading on this issue just as they do in the disarmament movement.

New York — In a lightning leap forward to a typically snail-paced process, today at the United Nations four states simultaneously ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). This brings the total number of ratifications to 19. A further eight nations signed the Treaty at the UN signing ceremony, an essential step on the path towards their own ratifications.

On the first anniversary of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), new YouGov polling commissioned by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has found an overwhelming rejection of nuclear weapons. 

As Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump signed an “agreement” in Singapore today, ICAN welcomes the diplomatic efforts but warns that only a process based in international law and existing treaty frameworks will achieve nuclear disarmament and fully denuclearise the Korean Peninsula.

Working behind the scenes for the last month, a group of the world’s foremost nuclear disarmament experts have mapped out the best pathway for total denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, determining that the existing international treaty framework is the most appropriate solution.

Heads of state and Foreign Ministers will sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons tomorrow, 20 September 2017, as the General Assembly of the United Nations opens in New York.

"Today, we are putting nuclear weapons in the same category as other unacceptable weapons. Like the conventions prohibiting chemical and biological weapons, landmines and cluster munitions, this treaty bans an entire category of weapons. It strengthens the norm that weapons that cause unacceptable harm for civilians cannot remain legal – and that nuclear weapons are no longer an exception to these norms."