The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace.

Key points: Group honoured for "ground-breaking efforts" to achieve nuclear ban treaty

Group honoured for "ground-breaking efforts" to achieve nuclear ban treaty ICAN also awarded for drawing "attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences" of nuclear weapons

ICAN also awarded for drawing "attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences" of nuclear weapons 215 individuals and 103 organisations were nominated for the prize

ICAN describes itself as a coalition of grassroots non-government groups in more than 100 nations. It originated in Australia and was then launched internationally in Vienna in 2007.

Geneva-based organisation ICAN "has been a driving force in prevailing upon the world's nations to pledge to cooperate … in efforts to stigmatise, prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons," Nobel committee chairwoman Berit Reiss-Andersen said in the announcement.

She noted that similar prohibitions have been reached on chemical and biological weapons, land mines and cluster munitions, but despite being "even more destructive" nuclear weapons have avoided a similar international ban.

"The organisation is receiving the award for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons, and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition on such weapons," Ms Reiss-Anderson said.

Beatrice Fihn, executive director of the ICAN, told reporters "it sends a message to all nuclear-armed states and all states that continue to rely on nuclear weapons for security that it is unacceptable behaviour".

"We can't threaten to indiscriminately slaughter hundreds of thousands of civilians in the name of security. That's not how you build security," she said.

"We are trying to send very strong signals to all states with nuclear arms, nuclear-armed states — North Korea, US, Russia, China, France, UK, Israel, all of them, India, Pakistan — it is unacceptable to threaten to kill civilians."

Atomic bomb survivor Sunao Tsuboi met former president Barack Obama in 2016. ( Reuters: Toru Hanai )

In Japan, the only country to suffer an atomic bombing in the closing days of World War II, this year's Nobel Peace Prize resonated with many.

Sunao Tsuboi, a 92-year-old survivor of the Hiroshima bombing, said he was overjoyed to hear of the Nobel Peace award going to those who were also working toward the abolition of nuclear weapons.

"As long as I live, I hope to work toward a realisation of a world without nuclear weapons with ICAN and many other people," he said.

Mr Tsuboi, whose ear is partly missing and his face blotched with burn marks, is co-chair of the Japan Confederation of A-and H-Bomb Sufferers Organisations.

What message are we sending to North Korea?

Sorry, this video has expired ICAN Asia-Pacific director Tim Wright speaks to ABC News

ICAN founder Tilman Ruff paid tribute to nuclear victims when talking about the "humbling" win.

"There are a lot of people around the world who've made this happen," he told The World.

"Particularly I think of the nuclear victims, the test survivors, the people who have provided painful testimony that has helped to really inform and make real humanitarian motivation underpinning this treaty."

Sorry, this video has expired ICAN founder discusses Nobel Peace Prize win ( Auskar Surbakti )

ICAN Asia-Pacific director Tim Wright said it was a "huge honour" to be awarded the prize for a program that was launched in Melbourne 10 years ago.

"In a sense, it's the first Australian Nobel Peace Prize that's ever been awarded," he told the ABC.

"Over the past decade, we've been working to build support globally for a prohibition on nuclear weapons and we've been doing it by focusing on the catastrophic humanitarian consequences that these weapons have.

"We've been working with survivors of atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with survivors of nuclear testing here in Australia and in the Pacific."

He said Australia needed to take a very clear stance against nuclear weapons if it was to convince other countries not to acquire them.

"If Australia is saying that nuclear weapons are necessary for our defence, what message does that send to a country like North Korea?"

Nuclear weapons a 'threat to humanity'

The committee that chose the winner sorted through more than 300 nominations for this year's award, which recognises both accomplishments and intentions.

Asked by journalists whether the prize was essentially symbolic, given that no international measures against nuclear weapons have been reached, Ms Reiss-Andersen said: "What will not have an impact is being passive."

"We live in a world where the risk of nuclear weapons being used is greater than it has been for a long time.

"Some states are modernising their nuclear arsenals and there is a real danger that more countries will try to procure nuclear weapons, as exemplified by North Korea.

"Nuclear weapons pose a constant threat to humanity and on life on Earth."

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres echoed the same sentiment when he tweeted his congratulations to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, saying: "Now more than ever we need a world without nuclear weapons."

His spokesman Stephane Dujarric added "events over the past months have reminded us of the catastrophic risk that nuclear weapons pose to humanity."

The announcement was made in Norwegian capital Oslo, culminating a week in which Nobel laureates were named in medicine, physics, chemistry and literature.

The prize, worth nine million Swedish crowns ($1.42 million), will be presented in Oslo on December 10.

In July, 122 nations adopted a UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, but nuclear-armed states including the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France stayed out of the talks.

Australia also skipped the talks.

The Nobel prize seeks to bolster the case of disarmament amid nuclear tensions between the United States and North Korea, and uncertainty over the fate of a 2015 deal between Iran and major powers to limit Tehran's nuclear program.

ABC/wires