Nuclear disarmament group hopes Nobel Prize will combat apathy

GENEVA (Reuters) - A coalition campaigning against nuclear weapons said on Friday that it hoped the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the Japanese organisation Nihon Hidankyo would counter apathy surrounding the growing risk of their use.

The Geneva-based International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) won the Peace Prize in 2017 for its efforts to promote compliance with the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Daniel Hogsta, its deputy director, told Reuters he was "absolutely thrilled" for Nihon Hidankyo, representing atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

"It couldn't have come at a better time," he said. "I mean, it is generally recognised that the risk of the use of nuclear weapons right now is as high or perhaps even higher than it's ever been."

He cited the Ukraine war, where Russia has been warning that growing Western involvement increases the danger that it could resort to nuclear weapons.

"But there's unfortunately too much apathy," Hogsta said. "And what Nihon Hidankyo have shown us, and why this award is so important, is that people and political leaders need to be motivated for action."

ICAN is a coalition of non-governmental organisations from around 100 countries that lobbied successfully for the adoption of the nuclear weapons ban treaty, which 73 countries have ratified.

"We will continue to work closely with Nihon Hidankyo and Hibakusha across the world to make sure that the treaty is the game changer that it has the potential to be," Hogsta said.

(Reporting by Cecile Mantovani; Writing by Emma Farge; Editing by Kevin Liffey)