The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which is overseeing the destruction's of Syria's arsenal, won the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday at 3pm.
The spokesperson from Nobel commttee said: "By means of the present award, the committee is seeking to contribute to the elimination of chemical weapons."
They award was prompted by the recent chemical weapon use in Syria.
Experts from OPCW, the Hague-based global chemical weapons watchdog, supported by the United Nations, aims to destroy Syria's chemical weapons production facilities and weapons-filling equipment by November 1. Under a Russian-US deal struck last month, Syria's entire chemicals arms programme is due to be eliminated by mid-2014.
Since 1997, OPCW has been working to implement the Chemical Weapons Convention prohibiting the manufacture and storage us chemical weapons, an addendum to the 1925 Geneva Convention banning their use.
While 189 states have already acceded to the convention, the Nobel committee spokesperson appealed to those who had failed to meet the April 2012 deadline to desist the storage of such weapons. "This applies especially to the US and Russia," he said.
The award and the $1.25m prize will be presented in Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who founded the awards in his 1895.
Watch the announcement below:
OPCW is the 22nd organization to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Previous organizations include: the Red Cross, the United Nations and the European Union.
Norwegian public broadcaster NRK predicted that OPCW would win the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, a few hours before it was announced.
NRK has a strong track record reporting winners and last year announced that the EU would win an hour before the official statement.
