EarthAction

Children's Peace Prize Winner Selected to Address UN High-Level Meeting on Nuclear Disarmament

On September 26, the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, world leaders will participate in a High Level Meeting on Nuclear Disarmament.

'The United Nations and its member countries should focus more on disarmament for sustainable development' says 2016 Children's Peace Prize winner Kehkashan Basu, who was last week selected by the President of the UN General Assembly to address the UN High-Level Meeting as one of the two speakers from global civil society.

'The nuclear arms race, in particular, should be halted and the $100 billion global nuclear weapons budget be redirected towards ending poverty, reversing climate change, protecting the oceans, building a sustainable economy and providing basic education and health care for all humanity,' says Ms Basu, who was also named last week as one of Canada's Top 25 Women of Influence for 2018.

'Instead, the nuclear armed States are squandering resources and keeping their nuclear weapons poised to strike. One mistake would cause a humanitarian disaster, robbing children and youth of their health and future, and maybe even ending civilization as we know it.'

The High Level Meeting on the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons (Nuclear Abolition Day) will involve Presidents, Prime Ministers, Foreign Ministers and UN ambassadors presenting either their hopes and aspirations for nuclear disarmament or their excuses for keeping the nuclear arms race going. It falls on the anniversary of the incident in 1983 when a nuclear war was almost fought by accident.

When an incoming US ballistic missile attack was detected at the Serpukhov-15 nuclear warning centre, duty officer Stanislav Petrov, defied protocol and reported a false alarm. He was right. The satellites were wrong. And his action, which is chronicled in the award winning movie The Man Who Saved the World, prevented a potential nuclear calamity the life of which we have never experienced and hope never to see.

The lesson of the 1983 incident, and the 15-20 other times we have nearly had a nuclear exchange, is that nuclear deterrence could fail - and that failure would mean game over,' says Jakob von Uexkull, Founder of the World Future Council. 'As such, the nuclear armed States have to replace nuclear deterrence with better ways to achieve security, just as the overwhelming majority of other countries have already done.'

'Regardless of what the governments do at the UN, civil society will step up its action for nuclear disarmament,' says Ms Basu. 'The most powerful lobby for the nuclear arms race is the nuclear weapons industry.'

'From Oct 24-30, in locations around New York, we will count the $1 trillion nuclear weapons budget for the next 10 years and demonstrate how this money can be reallocated from the nuclear weapons industry into the Sustainable Development Goals and other areas of human and environmental need. This includes direct cuts to nuclear weapons budgets, and divestment from the industry, and is part of the global campaign Move the Nuclear Weapons Money.'

From Basel Peace Office. Learn more here

Retiring One Trident Missile Could Ensure UN Does Not Run Out of Cash

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last week warned member states and UN staff that the United Nations is $140 million short of its budget and could run out of cash, due to late and non-payment of UN dues by member states.

In a letter sent to UN members, Guterres said that the UN had "never faced such a difficult cash flow situation this early in the calendar year. An organization such as ours should not have to suffer repeated brushes with bankruptcy. But surely, the greater pain is felt by those we serve when we cannot, for want of modest funds, answer their call for help." 

Move the Nuclear Weapons Money has called for re-allocation of a portion of nuclear weapons budgets to assist the UN cash crisis. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, the cost to extend the lifetime of each US Trident nuclear missile is $140 million, the same amount as the UN shortfall.

Trident II nuclear missile

"if the US retires just one Trident nuclear missile from their arsenal, the money saved could be used to meet the UN deficit," says Alyn Ware, Global Coordinator for Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (PNND) and Co-founder of Move the Nuclear Weapons Money.

"Better yet, if all the nuclear armed States abandoned their plans to upgrade their nuclear arsenal, nearly $100 billion could be saved. This could then re-directed into the economy for job creation, climate protection, education, health, peace, diplomacy and sustainable security."

PNND Co-President Senator Ed Markey has introduced the Smarter Approach to Nuclear Expenditures (SANE) Act into the U.S. Senate to cut redundant and destabilizing nuclear programs and curtail nuclear modernization. "It is time we inserted some desperately needed sanity into America's budget priorities,"  says Senator Markey.

Senator Markey introducing the Smarter Approach to Nuclear Expenditure (SANE) Act

"Unfortunately, Senator Markey is unable to move a majority of the US Senate to support his act due to the lobbying power of the companies which are manufacturing the nuclear weapons systems" says Mr. Ware. "We can reduce this pro-nuclear lobbying power, and encourage the companies to get out of the nuclear weapons business, by nuclear weapons divestment."

The Move the Nuclear Weapons Money campaign shows how you can be involved, by moving your government, city, religious institution, university, bank and/or pension fund to divest (See Take Action). The campaign also lists examples of divestment policies adopted at these different levels.

"Next week parliamentarians, faith communities and peace organizations will commemorate the 73rd anniversary of the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki," says Vanda Proskova, PNND Research Officer, "Amongst the many actions around the world will be calls for further divestment from nuclear weapons corporations." 

In order to highlight the issue, the World Future Council along with PNND and other partners, will hold Count the Nuclear Weapons Money, an action during UN Disarmament Week (October 24-30) to "count out" the $1 trillion budgeted for nuclear weapons for the next ten years, and reallocate this money to better areas.

One million mock notes, each of $1 million value, will be counted by people of all ages, nations, backgrounds; celebrities, activists, politicians, UN officials, diplomats, artists, religious leaders, sportspeople, refugees and others. The counting will take place in front of the United Nations and at other relevant locations in New York.

"Counting the money note-by-note, no-stop over seven days and nights, will demonstrate what an exorbitant amount of money is being wasted on nuclear weapons - money which is sorely needed to end poverty, protect the climate, provide adequate health care and basic education, fund the United Nations and achieve the sustainable development goals," says Holger Güssenfeld, Creative Director of Count the Nuclear Weapons Money.

"This event will reach millions of people, encouraging them to take action to end investments in nuclear weapons, and reinvest in peace and the planet."

READ MORE AT UNFOLD ZERO

UN Secretary-General to release new disarmament initiative on Women's Day for Peace and Disarmament

On May 24, United Nations Secretary-General Antóio Guterres will release Securing our Common Future: An Agenda for Disarmament, a new initiative to address the humanitarian impact of armed conflict and the increased threats from arms races, international tensions and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

The UNSG will release the agenda at a special event at the University of Geneva which will be live-streamed, making it possible to watch the UNSG's presentation and follow-up discussion on your smartphone, laptop or computer.

May 24 is also the Women's International Day for Peace and Disarmament. Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament (PNND) are using the occasion to release Common security for a sustainable and nuclear-weapon-free world, a joint parliamentary statement commemorating the day and supporting the UNSG's initiative.

The statement, which has been endorsed by leading female parliamentarians from around the world, call for 'diplomacy, conflict resolution, common security and law to address security issues, rather than the threat or use of force.'

It notes that 'The United Nations was established with an array of mechanisms through which nations can resolve conflicts, negotiate disarmament and achieve security through diplomacy not war. These have been supplemented by additional common security mechanisms such as the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. We urge governments to make better use of these common security mechanisms, and especially to replace reliance on nuclear deterrence with reliance on common security.'

175th birthday of Nobel Peace Laureate Bertha von Suttner

The joint parliamentary statement also highlights the 17th anniversary birthday of Bertha von Suttner, the author of Lay Down Your Arms and the first woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

'As women legislators (current and former) from around the world we are inspired by peace visionaries like Berta von Suttner to reach beyond our national borders and different political persuasions to embrace the common interest of all humanity for peace and disarmament.'

Follow-on from Ban Ki-moon's nuclear disarmament initiative

PNND and UNFOLD ZERO actively promoted former UNSG Ban Ki-moon's Five-Point Proposal for Nuclear Disarmament which was supported worldwide and was influential in advancing a framework for a nuclear-weapon-free world.

It is hoped that the new initiative of Antóio Guterres will be even more influential in moving the international community to step back from militarism and war, and to replace this with more comprehensive use of law, diplomacy and common security.

READ MORE AT UNFOLD ZERO

Doomsday Clock Moves Closer to Midnight. UN High-Level Conference Becomes More Important

Photo Credit: Basel Peace Office

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists today moved the hands of the symbolic Doomsday Clock to 2 Minutes to Midnight, indicating that the world is the closest to possible nuclear armageddon since the height of the Cold War in 1953. 

The group of experts who made the adjustment to the clock pointed to rising nuclear tensions between the U.S. and North Korea, specifically “hyperbolic rhetoric and provocative actions on both sides.”

The group, which was founded in 1945 by Manhattan Project scientists, specifically notes “the decline of U.S. leadership and a related demise of diplomacy under the Trump administration” as a global concern and a reason for this year’s leap closer to midnight.

Nuclear risk reduction measures 

Today's announcement highlights the need for nuclear risk reduction measures, such as those being advanced by U.S. Senator Ed Markey, Co-President of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament. 

Markey has introduced legislation into the Senate (with companion legislation in the House introduced by Ted Lieu) to restrict the authority of the U.S. President to launch a nuclear attack without first consulting congress.

Markey has also organized joint congressional letters to the U.S. Secretaries of State, Defense and Energy calling on the current Nuclear Posture Review to include measures to lower nuclear threat postures, reduce the risk of nuclear weapons use, and advance the goal of the global elimination of nuclear weapons.

See Joint letter to Trump administration on reducing role of nuclear weaponsand Joint letter to the Trump administration opposing the production of new destabilizing nuclear weapons.

UN High-Level Conference

In May 2018, the United Nations General Assembly will hold the first ever High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament.

In light of the increased risks of nuclear war, this conference has become even more important than when it was first proposed to the UN five years ago. World leaders participating in this event should be encouraged - and will be expected - to take action to reduce these risks and advance nuclear disarmament.

Take action: 

Call on your government to attend the UN High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament at the highest level (Prime Minister, President or Foreign Minister) and to do their best at the conference to reduce nuclear risks and advance the abolition of nuclear weapons.

Click here for a sample letter and list of government contacts.

From the Basel Peace Office

International Campaign To Abolish Nuclear Weapons Wins 2017 Nobel Peace Prize

Beatrice Fihn, Executive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) receives a bottle of champagne from her husband Will Fihm Ramsay (R) next to Daniel Hogsta, coordinator, while they celebrate after ICAN won the Nobel Peace Prize 2017, in Geneva, Switzerland. Photo by Denis Balibouse/Reuters

Fihn said she could not believe the award was real until the official announcement, and thought the call, made minutes before the ceremony, was a “prank.”

For Fihn, the award is a statement on “unacceptable” nuclear reliance.

“We can’t threaten to indiscriminately slaughter hundreds of thousands of civilians in the name of security. That’s not how you build security,” she said.

The 2017 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).

The Nobel Committee said the organization, which is made up of non-governmental organizations from more than 100 countries, is being honored 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.”

ICAN’s immediate goal is to support and implement the 2017 United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which was adopted this summer. It’s the first treaty negotiated for nuclear disarmament in 20 years, the organization said.

The world’s nuclear powers, including the United States and Russia — who lead the nuclear stockpile race with around 6,700 and 7,000 nuclear weapons respectively — opposed the talks, citing a disregard for “the realities of the international security environment.”

“We do not intend to sign, ratify or ever become party to it,” U.S., UK and French representatives to the UN said in a statement earlier this year.

To go into effect, the UN’s treaty needs 50 countries to ratify the deal. So far, 53 countries have signed onto the deal, but only three — Guyana, the Vatican and Thailand — have ratified it.

Beatrice Fihn, executive director of ICAN, expressed shock at receiving the award when she received the news from Oslo.

“What an honor. I feel like I have to collect myself for a couple of seconds,” she said during the initial phone call.

By Jennifer Hijazi, October 6, 2017, PBS News

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September 26th: Reach High for a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World

credit: unfoldzero.org

September 26 has been chosen by the United Nations to be the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons (Nuclear Abolition Day)

On this day, join parliamentarians, mayors, religious communities, youth, artists, activists, and others around the world to Reach HIGH for a nuclear-weapon-free world.

• Take a photo of yourself, or you and others, on a high place or reaching high, or lifting a peace sign/object up high;
• Post your photo on social media with the hashtags #ReachHIGH2018, #Sep26dontNukeUs, #abolishnukes, and/or #YouthAgainstNukes.

Contact UNFOLD ZERO for a sample peace sign to use in your action.

Credit: unfoldzero.org

Promote a nuclear-weapon-free-world

Reach HIGH for a nuclear-weapon-free world aims to raise awareness about the 2018 UN High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament, and to push governments to adopt significant nuclear disarmament measures at the conference. These could include:

• Non-nuclear governments ratifying the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons;
• Nuclear-armed countries announcing reductions in stockpiles and an end to nuclear modernization;
• Nuclear-armed and allied States adopting a no-first-use declaration, and agreeing on a framework for achieving a nuclear-weapon-free world;
• Starting negotiations for nuclear-weapon-free zones in North East Asia and the Middle East.

Call on your government to attend at the highest level

The best way to ensure success of the 2018 UN High Level Conference is for governments to attend at the highest level (Prime Minister/President or Foreign Minister). If they do this, there is every expectation that they will adopt, or make significant progress on, nuclear disarmament at the conference.

Click here for a sample letter to your government. And remember to keep watching www.unfoldzero.org for updates and events.

110 Organisations from 44 Countries Call for Diplomacy on Korea Nuke Issue

Source: Abolition2000.org

The United States and North Korea should step back from the brink of war in North East Asia, and instead adopt a diplomatic approach to prevent war, according to an appeal sent yesterday to these two governments, and to the UN Security Council, by members and affiliates of the Abolition 2000 global network to eliminate nuclear weapons.

110 organisations and over 200 additional civil society representatives from 44 countries endorsed the appeal. It highlights 'the increasing risk of war - and possibly even the use of nuclear weapons by miscalculation, accident, or intent,' calls for 'immediate commencement of negotiations to prevent a military conflict from erupting,' and urges 'the UN Security Council to prioritise a diplomatic solution to the conflict.'

Endorsers of the appeal included parliamentarians, mayors/city representatives, scientists, academics, business leaders, medical professionals, veterans, educators/teachers, Nobel Peace Laureates, Right Livelihood Award laureates (the 'alternative Nobel Peace Prize'), religious leaders, artists, nuclear victims, lawyers, women's organisations, youth, former UN officials & diplomats, NGO leaders and other civil society campaigners.

'Diplomacy with North Korea has worked in the past, and could succeed again if the security concerns of all countries in the region are taken into consideration,' said Alyn Ware, Global Coordinator of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation (PNND) and coordinator of the appeal. 'This could include negotiations for a North East Asia Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone, which appears to have cross-party support from three key countries - Japan, South Korea and North Korea.'

'We support the call for a negotiated settlement of the dispute between Korea and USA, Japan, South Korea and neighboring countries with a view to secession of nuclear testing in the interests of humanity and protection of the planet,' said Ela Gandhi (South Africa), Grand-daughter of Mohandas Gandhi and Co-President of Religions for Peace.

'We support this call for a diplomatic approach for North Korea,' said Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate and member of Women Cross DMZ, a group of women who walked from North Korea to South Korea in support of peace. 'As we experienced during our visit to North Korea, the people want peace not war.'

'I feel sad for the ordinary folk who live in North Korea,' said Karipbek Kuyukov (Kazakhstan), a second generation victim of nuclear tests and Honorary Ambassador of the ATOM Project. 'We [in the USSR] went through that too. We thought having weapons of mass destruction means being stronger and more powerful, but it is like an illusion. It is like carrying a huge rock up a steep mountain.'

The appeal also opposes any pre-emptive use of force by any of the parties, calls on all parties to refrain from militaristic rhetoric and provocative military exercises, and welcomes the offers by the UN Secretary-General and the European Foreign Minister to assist negotiations to resolve the conflict.

UNFOLD ZERO, an affiliate of Abolition 2000, joins others in the Abolition 2000 network to promote this appeal.

By Alyn Ware, on behalf of the UNFOLD ZERO team

READ MORE FROM UNFOLD ZERO

GDAMS – 05th-18th April 2016

©Picture from Icy and Sot    www.icyandsot.com

Given the numerous crises facing the planet – the environment, the economy, epidemics, mass poverty – is this the right priority for the use of public money? We say no: a massive reallocation is needed. There are thousands of organizations and millions of individuals who support this point of view – what is needed is a serious mobilizing effort to make it visible. For this reason we have launched a global movement calling for the transfer of military money to human needs.

Every year since 2011, in mid-April, we have been organizing the Global Day of Action on Military Spending (GDAMS) to coincide with the release of the annual world military expenditure figures by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). It is also timed to tie in with Tax Day in the U.S., when Americans pay their taxes and debate their use.

On the Global Day, people on all continents join together in collaborative actions to focus public, political, and media attention on the costs of military spending and the need for new priorities. Such events help us build the international network around this issue, and reach new audiences.

Each location has a free hand to craft its own approach. It could be linked to a national, local, or international peace issue, such as on-going wars, anti-bases protests, arms trade deals, work against small arms, resources for nonviolent conflict resolution, a nuclear disarmament campaign, etc. It can also be linked to welfare cuts, hospital closures, reductions in pensions or development cooperation; or to the need to put money into tackling climate change.

We encourage groups and individuals to maximize the Global Day as an opportunity to connect up with each other across the sectors — peace, environment, development, labour, youth, faith-based, anti-poverty organizations and individuals who share our perspective. Our only specific request is to call attention to a common focus: the overall size of global military spending.

The number of actions are increasing each year. As for the types of activities: a whole range is possible — from physical actions: flashmobs, street theatre/demonstrations, banner displays, seminars, signature collections or concerts; to social media campaigns: Thunderclap; Selfies or groupies on Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest; video productions on Youtube; or some combination.

READ MORE HERE

 

 

Call For December 10 Human Rights Day/ Syria Actions

PEACE & PLANET NETWORK

We are all the victims of state and non-state terrorism. Ending such calamities as the Paris and Beirut massacres requires a struggle against the forces of destruction emanating from the Middle East and from the imperial wars of the US, NATO and allied states.

The U.S. and its allies are fighting wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Pakistan, Ukraine and Somalia. Worse, in Syria and Ukraine and Eastern Europe, the two major nuclear weapons states, the U.S. and Russia, are fighting on opposite sides of the conflicts. There, U.S. nuclear-armed allies, Britain, France and Israel, are also involved. An accidental or intentional military incident, could send the world spiraling into a disastrous nuclear confrontation. The bombing attacks on neutral hospitals remind us that in the chaos of war such mistakes are all too common.

US allies Turkey, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states have fueled the wars in Syria and Iraq with foreign fighters, weapons, funding and porous borders. Without this massive and fundamental support ISIS and the other jihadist fundamentalists could not carry on.

To add to the potential conflicts, the U.S. and China, another nuclear-armed nation, are facing off against each other in the seas bordering China and other Asian nations. Here again potentially dangerous military incidents could trigger war as China responds to the U.S. bases, military alliances and military “exercises” to reinforce its regional dominance, with disputed claims to 80% of the South China Sea and rival military exercises.

The Obama administration has recently announced that U.S. troops will remain in Afghanistan, are being reintroduced into Iraq and will be introduced into Syria, thus further escalating the conflicts. The recent introduction of Russian forces into Syria, invited by and supporting Assad, challenges Obama’s goal of regime change, but further contributes to the violence the people of Syria have to face.

Many Middle Eastern and European states now face a crisis of accepting millions of refugees, most of whose flights can be traced to the devastation of their communities by the region’s wars. The vast majority of these refugees come from countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Libya.

December 10^th is International Human Rights Day. The human rights of the refugees and those who still remain in areas of violent conflict are daily being violated.

Call to Action: Spring 2015 Mobilization

Lois Barber, EarthAction’s Executive Director, is a member of the Coordinating Committee for the following important event set for April 2015. You are invited to join this global movement to make us all safer and more secure from the threat posed from the world's 16,000 nuclear weapons. Now’s the time for action. 

Press Release: December 8, 2014 

- International NGO Network Launches Plans for 2015 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference. Demands Fulfillment of NPT through Commencement of Negotiations for Complete Abolition of Nuclear Weapons.

Vienna and New York City -- On the occasion of the third International Conference on the Humanitarian Consequences of Nuclear Weapons being held in Vienna, a broad international network of NGOs has announced plans for a major mobilization in the run-up to the critically important Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference. The NPT Review Conference will be held at UN headquarters in New York City in April and May 2015. The Vienna conference, with more than 150 governments and 200 representatives of civil society participating, is designed to build momentum for a successful Review Conference.

Quoting the Call to Action, which was released today (see attached), Dr. Joseph Gerson of the American Friends Service Committee and a co-convener of the network said, “A nuclear weapon-free world can and must be achieved.” He continued, “The dangers of nuclear war didn’t disappear with the end of the Cold War. The United States and Russia have engaged in potentially catastrophic nuclear weapons drills during the continuing Ukraine crisis. ‘All options’ remain on the table threatening stability with Iran. In addition, the U.S. has flown simulated nuclear attacks against North Korea. Scientists now tell us that an exchange of between 50 and 100 of the world’s more than 16,000 nuclear weapons would result in a global famine leading to an estimated two billion deaths.”