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This year's Nobel Peace Prize affirms that "multilateral, legal and peaceable conduct of international affairs is not only possible but productive," said Peter Weiderud, director of the World Council of Churches Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (WCC/CCIA), commenting on the prize awarded to Mohamed El Baradei today. Weiderud also said that "control of nuclear arms and technology" is an "incontrovertible recognition of the God-given value of human life" and that, therefore, the award represents an "important investment in hope as well as peace".
The full text of the WCC comment follows:
Awarding the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize to Mohamed El Baradei and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) honours an institutional contribution to peace, and makes timely affirmation that even in deep crises, multilateral, legal and peaceable conduct of international affairs is not only possible but productive.
The IAEA and its director receive this honour as agents of international law and stewards of collective security. Using carefully mandated inspections, the IAEA was verifying that Iraq was not a nuclear threat when a pre-emptive invasion ended their measured approach. In Iran and elsewhere, the IAEA continues to show that treaties and inspections can still work despite serious erosion of certain nations’ commitments to nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament.
Since the dawn of the nuclear age, the World Council of Churches has held that elimination and prohibition of nuclear weapons are the only sure protection against nuclear war, and that verification, which the IAEA represents, is the instrument necessary for a nuclear weapons-free world.
The control of nuclear arms and technology is an unequivocal undertaking on the world’s agenda. It is also an incontrovertible recognition of the God-given value of human life. With this award, the Nobel Committee in Oslo has made an important investment in hope as well as peace.
