For photos from the visit, visit Flickr.

“ICAN is an advocate for a goal we all stand behind – a world without nuclear weapons. The views on how to reach this goal may differ, but it is important to have popular support and a vision of where we want to go. In this context, ICAN plays a key role by virtue of working to put the nuclear threat on the international agenda,” said President of the Storting Olemic Thommessen.

A humanitarian perspective

Four of ICAN’s representatives visited the Storting: the campaign’s Executive Director Beatrice Fihn, Grethe Östern, Susi Snyder and Akira Kawasaki. They met both the President of the Storting and the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence which is chaired by Anniken Huitfeldt.

The President of the Storting congratulated ICAN in front of the international press corps, and emphasised that one of the reasons why the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded this year’s Peace Prize to the campaign is its work to highlight the disastrous humanitarian consequences any use of nuclear weapons would cause.

“When I visited Japan last year I met victims of the Hiroshima atomic bomb which was dropped in August of 1945. The meeting was a powerful reminder that the work for a world without nuclear weapons is more than an academic exercise. It is through meeting individuals that one is made to realise the extent of the horrors which nuclear weapons can cause,” Thommessen said.

Read the President of the Storting’s speech during the Nobel Banquet on Sunday 10 December. 

ICAN’s members at their meeting with the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence. Photo: Storting.