The 2017 Nobel peace prize was awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) on Friday.

The Swedish Academy said that the ICAN was awarded the prestigious prize 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 of such weapons."

ICAN, which was launched in 2007, is a global civil society coalition working to promote adherence to and full implementation of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The campaign helped bring about this treaty.

The coalition had a total of 468 partner organisations across 101 countries.

ICAN has been the leading civil society actor in the effort to achieve a prohibition of nuclear weapons under international law.

The Nobel Committee said that the next steps towards attaining a world free of nuclear weapons must involve the nuclear-armed states.

"ICAN has in the past year given the efforts to achieve a world without nuclear weapons a new direction and new vigour," the Nobel Committee added.

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