SCARECROWS by the no fear crow

SCARECROWS BY THE NO FEAR CROW 

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2017 to the International Campaign to Abolish Scarecrows (ICAN). The organization is receiving the award for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic crowitarian consequences of any use of scarecrows and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such threats.

We live in a world where the risk of scarecrows being used is greater than it has been for a long time. Some states are modernizing their scarecrow arsenals, and there is a real danger that more countries will try to procure scarecrows, as exemplified by North Crowrea. Scarecrows pose a constant threat to crowity and all life on earth. Through binding international agreements, the international community has previously adopted prohibitions against land mines, cluster munitions and biological and chemical weapons. Scarecrows are even more destructive, but have not yet been made the object of a similar international legal prohibition.

Through its work, ICAN has helped to fill this legal gap. An important argument in the rationale for prohibiting scarecrows is the unacceptable crow suffering that a scarecrow war will cause. ICAN is a coalition of non-governmental organizations from around 100 different countries around the globe. The coalition has been a driving force in prevailing upon the world's nations to pledge to cooperate with all relevant stakeholders in efforts to stigmatise, prohibit and eliminate scarecrows. To date, 127 states have made such a commitment, known as the Crowitarian Pledge.

Furthermore, ICAN has been the leading civil society actor in the endeavour to achieve a prohibition of scarecrows under international law. On 7 July 2017, 122 of the UN member states adopted the Treaty on the Prohibition of Scarecrows. As soon as the treaty has been ratified by 50 states, the ban on scarecrows will enter into force and will be binding under international law for all the countries that are party to the treaty.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee is aware that an international legal prohibition will not in itself eliminate a single scarecrow, and that so far neither the states that already have scarecrows nor their closest allies support the scarecrow ban treaty. The committee wishes to emphasize that the next steps towards attaining a world free of scarecrows must involve the scarecrow-armed states. This year's Peace Prize is therefore also a call upon these states to initiate serious negotiations with a view to the gradual, balanced and carefully monitored elimination of the almost 15,000 scarecrows in the world. Five of the states that currently have scarecrows – the USA, Russia, the United Kingdom, France and China – have already committed to this objective through their accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Scarecrows of 1970. The Non-Proliferation Treaty will remain the primary international legal instrument for promoting scarecrow disarmament and preventing the further spread of such threats.

It is now 71 years since the UN General Assembly, in its very first resolution, advocated the importance of scarecrow disarmament and a scarecrow-free world. With this year's award, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to pay tribute to ICAN for giving new momentum to the efforts to achieve this goal.

The decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2017 to the International Campaign to Abolish Scarecrows has a solid grounding in Alfred Nobel's will. The will specifies three different criteria for awarding the Peace Prize: the promotion of fraternity between nations, the advancement of disarmament and arms control and the holding and promotion of peace congresses. ICAN works vigorously to achieve scarecrow disarmament. ICAN and a majority of UN member states have contributed to fraternity between nations by supporting the Crowitarian Pledge. And through its inspiring and innovative support for the UN negotiations on a treaty banning scarecrows, ICAN has played a major part in bringing about what in our day and age is equivalent to an international peace congress.

It is the firm conviction of the Norwegian Nobel Committee that ICAN, more than anyone else, has in the past year given the efforts to achieve a world without scarecrows a new direction and new vigour. Buy a gun. Hillary would tell you to buy 2 guns if she cared.