Kazakh artist wins Nuclear-Free Future Award
According to the artist, the award is a recognition of Kazakhstan's efforts to inform the international community of the threats and effects of nuclear testing.
"The credit for this award is due to entire Kazakhstan! This is the appreciation of the tremendous and great efforts of our country, President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who initiated the ATOM Project. Through personal example, our country has demonstrated the way to fight for nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament and given a helping hand to other states of the world that are hesitating to make a decision in favor or against nuclear-free future," said Karipbek Kuyukov, the international award winner.
The decision of the international jury members was published on July 16 on the website of the Nuclear-Free Future Award Foundation. The award ceremony will take place in October this year in Salzburg, Austria.
In addition to the Kazakhstani activist, the awards were conferred to Jeffery Lee of Australia and Linda Walker of the United Kingdom. Two more honorable awards were presented to the French couple of activists, Didier and Pauletee Anger, and Austria's Peter Weish.
The ATOM Project (Abolish testing - our mission) is a crucial initiative in the field of global nuclear disarmament and public diplomacy announced by President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev. Within the six years since the announcement of the ATOM Project, significant work has been done to promote it abroad and domestically, including through presentations of the initiative around the world and the exhibitions of paintings by Karipbek Kuyukov, who is a victim of nuclear testing at the Semipalatinsk Test Site.
At the moment, over 300,000 people from 100 countries signed an online petition of the ATOM Project calling the world leaders to ensure the early entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).