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Anti-nuclear group takes out Nobel Prize

A Melbourne-born organisation pushing for a ban on nuclear weapons has won the Nobel Peace Prize.

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Source: AAP


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A Melbourne-launched international group pushing for a ban on nuclear weapons has won the Nobel Peace Prize.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons was launched in Victoria's Parliament House 10 years ago and was announced as the winner in Oslo on Friday.

"We live in a world where the risk of nuclear weapons being used is greater than it has been for a long time," leader of the Norwegian Nobel Committee Berit Reiss-Andersen said.

ICAN describes itself as a coalition of non-government organisations in more than 100 countries and was officially launched in Vienna in 2007.

The organisation worked on negotiations for the Treaty on the United Nations Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, adopted by 122 countries in July.

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ICAN founder Tilman Ruff said being awarded the Nobel Prize was "quite humbling" and "unbelievably joyful".

"Particuarly, I think of the nuclear victims, the test survivors, the people who've provided painful testimony that has helped to really inform and make real the humanitarian motivation and underpinning for this treaty," Mr Ruff told ABC news on Friday.


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