1985 Nobel Peace Prize

Official Statement of the Nobel Committee
Upon Awarding the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize
to IPPNW

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 1985 to the organization International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War.

It is the committee's opinion that this organization has performed a considerable service to mankind by spreading authoritative information and by creating an awareness of the catastrophic consequences of atomic warfare.

The committee believes that this in turn contributes to an increase in the pressure of public opposition to the proliferation of atomic weapons and to a redefining of priorities, with greater attention being paid to health and other humanitarian issues.

Such an awakening of public opinion as is now apparent both in the East and the West, in the North and in the South, can give the present arms limitation negotiations new perspectives and a new seriousness.

In this connection, the committee attaches particular importance to the fact that the organization was formed as a result of a joint initiative by Soviet and American physicians and that it now draws support from the physicians in over 40 countries all over the world.

It is the committee's intention to invite the organization's two founders, who share the title of president -- Professor Bernard Lown from the USA and Professor Eugueni Chazov from the Soviet Union -- to receive the Peace Prize on behalf of their organization.

-- 11 October 1985