The Next Steps Towards a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World

Nagasaki Bomb, Photo courtesy of WIkiCommons. 

The numberof countries demanding the elimination of nuclear weapons as a humanitarian imperativehas recently grown to 80.

A joint statementon the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons was released on behalf of manydelegations to the 2013 Non-Proliferation Treaty Preparatory Committee inGeneva.  This statement discussescritiques of the NPT for ignoring the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons asa global concern. 

Thejoint statement concluded that:

“It isin the interest of the very survival of humanity that nuclear weapons are neverused again, under any circumstances… The only way to guarantee that nuclearweapons will never be used again is through their total elimination.”

As ofrecent, none of the states known as “nuclear-weapon states”* have signed thestatement – United States, Russia, United Kingdom, France, China, India,Pakistan, and North Korea. Nevertheless, four NATO countries that are members of a nuclear alliancewith the United States – Denmark, Iceland, Luxembourg, and Norway – did sign. 

TheStates signing onto this new appeal (not all of them yet listed on the printed versionposted to the RCW website) are: Algeria, Argentina, Austria, Belarus,Bangladesh, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Cambodia, Chile,Colombia, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Cyprus, Denmark, Djibouti, Ecuador, Egypt,El Salvador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Georgia, Grenada, Guatemala, Holy See, Honduras,Iceland, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon,Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Mauritius,Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger,Nigeria, Norway, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines,Qatar, Samoa, Singapore, South Africa, Swaziland, Switzerland, Tanzania,Thailand, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Uganda, Ukraine, Uruguay, Yemenand Zambia.

It’s time some of the leadingcountries with nuclear power consider taking a stride towards anuclear-weapons-free world.  

Story courtesy of http://peaceandhealthblog.com/2013/04/24/74-npt-states-issue-humanitarian-appeal-for-abolition/