This year’s Nobel Peace Prize has just been announced.

Berit Reiss-Andersen: “Good morning, everybody. The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2017 to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.”

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, known as ICAN, is a coalition of nongovernmental organizations in more than 100 countries. Launched in 2007, ICAN helped organize a landmark victory this year: the world’s first legally binding treaty banning nuclear weapons. The treaty was adopted by 122 U.N. member states in July, and signed by 51 countries during U.N. General Assembly Week in September. The treaty prohibits the development, testing and possession of nuclear weapons, as well as using or threatening to use these weapons. It was adopted and signed by dozens of countries despite the fierce opposition of the United States and other nuclear-armed nations. This is the executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, Beatrice Fihn.

Beatrice Fihn: “We’re working very hard on trying to make nuclear weapons illegal. They are not yet prohibited by a treaty—nuclear weapons—and I think that we’re trying to change people’s minds. People have been accepting nuclear weapons as legitimate tools for providing security for, you know, 70 years now, and we’re trying to change the mindset, really, that it’s not acceptable to threaten to level an entire city, just to keep yourself secure.”