EarthAction: October 2020

October 26, 2020

Nuclear Ban Treaty Becomes Law in 90 Days

October 24, 2020: Honduras today became the 50^th country to ratify the historic United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). It was an appropriate way to mark the 75^th anniversary of the United Nations, whose first goal at its founding on this day in 1945 was to address the nuclear threat to the world.

On January 22, 2021, 90 days after the 50^th ratification, the treaty will enter into force as international law. More countries are expected to ratify in the coming months. While ratification is the last step, 122 countries have already adopted the treaty, and 84 have signed it.

The nine nuclear-armed nations (U.S., Russia, China, U.K., France, Israel, India, Pakistan, North Korea) have so far boycotted the TPNW. But 26 companies build and maintain nuclear weapons, and many of those have operations, contracts, suppliers and investors in countries that have already joined the TPNW. They could soon be breaking the law in those countries.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), which includes 590 organizations in 103 countries, facilitated the treaty at the United Nations. ICAN then won the 2017 Nobel Peace 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.”

The treaty forbids everything to do with nuclear weapons, including developing, testing, producing, manufacturing, otherwise acquiring, possessing, stockpiling, transferring, using or threatening to use nuclear weapons. Already, the treaty has led to significant divestment by institutions around the world that decline to finance nuclear weapons, for moral or fiduciary reasons. There will soon be strong legal reasons for doing so as well.

Unlike previous nuclear treaties, created (and many subsequently abrogated) by the nuclear-armed nations, this one comes from the rest of the world, since all countries are at risk from nuclear weapons use, production, and testing.

On October 21, 2020, as the 50th ratification neared, the Associated Press reported that several ratifying countries had received letters from the Trump administration, asking them to withdraw from the treaty they had just joined. Such interference in a United Nations disarmament treaty is unprecedented.

The letter claimed that the TPNW interferes with the 50-year-old Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). However, according to ICAN executive director Beatrice Fihn, “there’s no way you can undermine the Nonproliferation Treaty by banning nuclear weapons. It’s the end goal of the Nonproliferation Treaty.”

The NPT entered into force in 1970, when there were only five nuclear-armed nations. Article 6 of the NPT commits the nuclear armed states to negotiate the elimination of their nuclear arsenals “in good faith” and “at an early date.” Fifty years later, there are nine nuclear armed states.

In Northampton, Massachusetts, Dr. Timmon Wallis found news of the Trump administration’s letter unsurprising. Wallis was involved in the treaty negotiations, and co-founded ICAN partner NuclearBan.US to promote the treaty in the United States.

He said, “The U.S. government has been trying to stop this treaty from the very beginning. Of course, this just proves how powerful and important this treaty actually is in terms of undermining the trillion-dollar US nuclear weapons industry. These companies are suddenly going to find themselves on the wrong side of the law in more and more countries around the world. It’s only a matter of time before they decide to get out of this business. The US government will then have no choice but to join the rest of the world in eliminating these weapons once and for all.”

NuclearBan.US co-founder Vicki Elson added, “Well, it’s nice that the nuclear nations all have something in common. They all love their weapons of mass extinction. But the world has spoken, the time has come, and nuclear weapons are going to be eliminated. Hopefully before they eliminate civilization, or life on earth.”

As the news of Honduras’ ratification broke, ICAN members worldwide held a spontaneous Zoom celebration. They speculated about which nuclear-armed nation would be the first to “be on the right side of history” and join the TPNW. They also acknowledged the campaigners who have been working toward nuclear abolition since nuclear bombs were first used in 1945.

One of those is Setsuko Thurlow, 88, who survived the U.S. nuclear bombing of Hiroshima when she was 13. Thurlow said she “cried tears of joy” as the TPNW reached this milestone. She acknowledged that she will probably not live long enough to see the last nuclear weapon dismantled, but she reiterated her vow to continue campaigning “to my dying breath.”

Press Release from ICAN:

https://www.icanw.org/historic_milestone_un_treaty_on_the_prohibition_of_nuclear_weapons_reaches_50_ratifications_needed_for_entry_into_force

And as covered by the New York Times:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/25/world/americas/nuclear-weapons-prohibition-treaty.html

Plus new 90-second video to share!

The post Nuclear Ban Treaty Becomes Law in 90 Days appeared first on Treaty Compliance Campaign.

Posted by The EarthAction Team at 12:17 PM in Action Alert, Disarmament, Nuclear Nonproliferation | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 14, 2020

URGENT APPEAL: Stop the demolition of the monument of Macliing Dulag, Pedro Dungoc, Lumbaya Gayudan and other heroes of the Anti-Chico Dams Struggle

We appeal for your urgent support to prevent the demolition of the monument of Macliing Dulag, Pedro Dungoc, Lumbaya Gayudan and other heroes of the historic Anti-Chico Dam Resistance!

This afternoon, the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) received a notice from the Upper Kalinga District Engineering Office (UKDEO) of the Department of Public Works and Highways saying that the heroes’ monument encroached on a portion of the national road. The notice of demolition states that we are given seven (7) days from receipt of the notice to voluntarily remove the monument. If we fail to do so, UKDEO will remove the monument and charge the costs that will be incurred to the Cordillera Peoples Alliance and that they will resort to proper sanctions provided for by existing laws and rules of the government. There was no due process or dialogues held with the CPA on the matter. They want to make us pay for the cost of their sacrilegious acts. These heroes died from the hands of the government and now their legacy is bound to be killed once more. This is downright tyranny!

Last week, the PNP Provincial Advisory Council of the Kalinga Provincial Police Office requested the provincial government through the Provincial Board Committee on Oversight to enact a resolution to address the removal of the heroes’ monument.

The monument was built by the Cordillera Peoples Alliance in 2017, together with the families of the heroes and martyrs as well as people from Bugnay, the site of the monument. It was built to honor the legacy of our heroes and martyrs who successfully opposed the Marcos Dictatorship’s Chico Dams Project that would have brought massive destruction to the communities, culture and environment of the people of Kalinga and Mountain Province. It is a reminder to present and future generations of the valiant struggle by our elders to defend the ancestral land. It is a reminder of the Butbut tribe’s place in the history of the Chico valley, the Cordillera, the country, and the world.

It has been more than 3 years since the monument was built but it is only now that UKDEO and the police are raising the issue of encroachment and using this as an excuse to dismantle the monument. The DPWH should have stopped the construction from the start if indeed there was a violation. The people of Bugnay including Macliing Dulag’s family had welcomed the project and even helped build the monument on their ancestral land.

Demolition of the monument is tyranny especially at this time of COVID-19 pandemic! These heroes deserve the utmost respect of the people and the government. Their monument deserves to be in a place of honor within their ancestral domain.

Demolishing the monument is double injustice to the Anti-Chico Dams heroes. Macliing Dulag was shot dead by members of the Philippine Army led by Lieutenant Leodegardo Adalem on April 24, 1980. Until now, justice has not been served. Now his monument along with other heroes and martyrs is also bound to be destroyed.

To demolish and desecrate the monument is a brazen act of obliterating the Cordillera people’s history of struggle against oppression and injustice. It is part of the government’s acts of historical revisionism or distorting and erasing the true history of the people’s resistance and heroism which remain relevant until today.

This threat to demolish the heroes’ monument is another attack against the people, the Cordillera Peoples Alliance, and against our heroes and martyrs who resisted development aggression and State repression. It is a part of the implementation of Executive Order 70 or the “Whole of Nation” approach to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (ELCAC) whereby communities and even local government units are being pressured and forced to comply. Historical revisionism is no doubt one of the goals of ELCAC.

Help save the monument from destruction!

The following are some of the ways you can help:

1. Send letters of concern to stop and prevent the demolition to the following, and furnish us a copy through [email protected]:

1. Eugene M. Batalao

District Engineer

Upper Kalinga District Engineering Office

Department of Public Works and Highways

Email: [email protected]

b. Khadaffy Tanggol

Regional Director

Department of Public Works and Highways – Cordillera

Email: [email protected]

c. General R’win Pagkalinawan

Director, Police Regional Office – Cordillera

Email: [email protected]

d. Andres B. Ngao-i

Chairman, Philippine National Police Provincial Advisory Council

Bulanao, Tabuk City, Kalinga

Email: [email protected]

2. Issue statements of condemnation against the demolition of the heroes’ monument and post your stories and opinions.

3. Sign the online petition to stop the demolition of the monument at http://chng.it/9ydD8hK2c6

4. Support the Defend the Cordillera campaign against plunder and State terror. Sign the Global Pact at ph. Watch what's the campaign is all about here.

For more information, please read: