International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
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ICAN, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons is a campaign of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, an organization of doctors and medical professionals in 60 countries.
Physicians first confronted the horrors of nuclear war in 1945 following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In the late 1950's and early 1960s physicians played a key role in the debate over atmospheric tests of nuclear weapons and the health effects of radioactive fallout. In the 1970s physicians began to discuss ideas to foster medical cooperation between physicians of the two superpowers in order to spearhead a worldwide movement away from nuclear disaster. For these efforts, the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War won the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize
The goal of ICAN is the complete abolition of nuclear weapons, nuclear disarmament, through the negotiation of a comprehensive nuclear weapons convention.
The campaign was launched around the world in April 2007, starting in Australia, Norway, India, Malaysia, and in Vienna, Austria, on April 30, 2007, at the first session for the 2010 review conference of the states parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
