The ATOM Project to participate in ICAN Nobel prize events

December 9, 2017

The ATOM Project and Project Honorary Ambassador Karipbek Kuyukov will participate in the Dec. 9-13 events in Oslo, Norway related to the awarding of partner organisation ICAN’s receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize for its anti-nuclear weapons efforts.

“Having recently collaborated with ICAN, I want to congratulate ICAN on its Nobel Prize and thank the organisation for its work with The ATOM Project and other non-proliferation partners to achieve a nuclear-weapons-free world,” said Kuyukov in October. “This award truly brings to the fore the issue of nuclear non-proliferation and the hard work of ICAN members around the world and others who are striving to remove the threat of nuclear weapons.”

ICAN is a Geneva-based global civil society coalition made up of 468 partner organisations, including The ATOM Project, in 101 countries. It was formed in 2007 and is working to achieve full adherence to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

The ATOM Project is one of the organisations ICAN represents in that effort. The ATOM Project is an international campaign launched in 2012 to raise awareness of the human and environmental devastation caused by nuclear weapons testing and to engage millions of global citizens to permanently stop nuclear weapons testing and achieve a nuclear-weapons-free world.

The ATOM Project was started by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who shut down in 1991 the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site in the eastern Kazakhstan where the Soviets conducted more than 450 nuclear weapons tests over 40 years. More than 1.5 million Kazakh citizens have been impacted by the tests, including many who, to this day, in the first and the second generations, suffer early death, lifelong debilitating illness and birth defects.

Kazakhstan knows the horrors of nuclear testing and, through The ATOM Project, has become a world leader in the non-proliferation effort.

The ATOM Project Honorary Ambassador Karipbek Kuyukov

In addition to The ATOM Project, other partner organisations include the Institute for Disarmament Policy, Article 36, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Norwegian Peoples Aid, PAX, Peace Boat, the Latin America Human Security Network (SEHLAC), Swedish Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.

Among the events in which Kuyukov will participate with ICAN include the Dec. 10 Nobel prize award ceremony and a torchlight procession later that evening. He will also be available during events before the ceremony, including a Dec. 9 campaigners’ gathering and a separate social event.

The award ceremony will be held in the Oslo city hall and include a limited number of guests. The event however, will be live streamed to an overflow event next to the City Hall.

The torchlight procession honoring the Nobel prize winner will begin at 5:30 pm and proceed from the Oslo Central Station to Grand Hotel. The event is expected to be the largest torchlight procession in Nobel history.

For more information about the procession go to, https://www.facebook.com/events/119946752029379/ (English explanation in the event information). To learn more about these and other ICAN Nobel events visit www.iCanw.org.

And for more information about the ATOM project or to join the more than 300,000 people worldwide who have signed the atom project online petition, visit www.theatomproject.org.