International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
| Founded | 2007 in Melbourne, Australia |
|---|---|
| Type | Non-profit international campaign |
| Headquarters | Geneva, Switzerland |
| Field | Nuclear disarmament |
| Website | www |
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (abbreviated to ICAN; pronounced /ˈaɪkæn/ EYE-kan) is a global civil society coalition working to mobilize people in all countries to inspire, persuade and pressure their governments to initiate and support negotiations for a nuclear-weapon-ban treaty. ICAN was launched in 2007 and today counts more than 440 partner organizations in 100 countries. ICAN calls on states, international organizations and other actors to:
· Acknowledge that any use of nuclear weapons would cause catastrophic humanitarian harm.
· Acknowledge that there exists a universal humanitarian imperative to ban nuclear weapons, even for states that do not possess these weapons.
· Acknowledge that the nuclear possessors have an obligation to eliminate their nuclear weapons.
· Take immediate action to support a multilateral process of negotiations for a treaty banning nuclear weapons.
ICAN aims to galvanize public and government support for a multilateral process for a treaty banning nuclear weapons. ICAN seeks to shift the disarmament debate to focus on the humanitarian threat posed by nuclear weapons, drawing attention to their unique destructive capacity, their catastrophic health and environmental consequences, their indiscriminate targeting, the debilitating impact of a detonation on medical infrastructure and relief measures, and the long-lasting effects of radiation on the surrounding area.
Founders of ICAN were inspired by the success of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which was pivotal in bringing about the negotiation of the anti-personnel mine ban treaty in 1997. They sought to establish a similar campaign model.
In September 2006, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War adopted a proposal at its biennial congress in Helsinki, Finland, to launch ICAN globally. ICAN was launched publicly at two events, the first on 23 April 2007 in Melbourne, Australia, where funds had been raised to establish the campaign, and the second on 30 April 2007 in Vienna at a meeting of State parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. National campaigns have been organized in dozens of countries in every region of the world.
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