No one should ever live to support a weapon of collateral mass murder irrespective of your thinking around geopolitics and national security.
Following the United Nations adoption of the Comprehensive Nuclear Ban Treaty (Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons) on 7 July 2017 by an overwhelming majority of the member states, which will enter into legal force once 50 nations have signed and ratified it, we have advanced in our collective call to curb development of new bombs, proliferation of nuclear materials, containment of existing nuclear weapons and agreements to destroy those dangerous bombs.
This Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons includes a comprehensive set of prohibitions on participating in any nuclear weapon activities. These include undertakings not to develop, test, produce, acquire, possess, stockpile, use or threaten to use nuclear weapons. The Treaty also prohibits the deployment of nuclear weapons on national territory and the provision of assistance to any State in the conduct of prohibited activities.
States parties will also be obliged to prevent and suppress any activity prohibited to a State Party under this Treaty undertaken by persons or on territory under its jurisdiction or control.
The Treaty also obliges States parties to provide adequate assistance to individuals affected by the use or testing of nuclear weapons as well as to take the necessary and appropriate measure of environmental remediation in areas under its jurisdiction or control contaminated as a result of activities related to the testing or use of nuclear weapons.
Chatting toward a very dangerous path to nuclear annihilation
Our world today is home to stockpiles of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons that should be consolidated, secured, accounted for and destroyed.
Our world today is home to nine nuclear weapon countries, each flexes power and show of force creating an enticing environment for nuclear struggle among non-nuclear states. In addition to this, we also have another 59 nations who possess nuclear materials and the capability to develop their own nuclear weapons programs if they so choose, that in itself should terrify each and every one of us.
This century’s threats are at least as dangerous as, and in some ways more complex than those we have confronted in the past. For every new nuclear state, it disrupts the balance of power within the geopolitics and further creates an incentive for another nuclear state to emerge. The dangers that come from these sophisticated weapons that could kill on a mass scale are irreplaceable. Lost or stolen nuclear material may fall into the hands of global terrorists’ groups who will definitely use them, also think of an accidental use of a nuclear weapon, that could lead to a full-scale nuclear war.
Nuclear physicist Frank von Hippel says, “My principal concern is that they’ll be used by accident as a result of false warning or even hacking. … At the moment, [nuclear weapons are] in a ‘launch on warning’ posture. The US and Russia are sort of pointed at each other. That’s an urgent problem, and we can’t depend on luck indefinitely.”
“Launch on warning” means that either leader would have roughly 10-12 minutes to launch what they think is a retaliatory nuclear attack, which doesn’t leave much time to confirm that warning signals are correct and not just some sort of computer glitch.
Lisbeth Gronlund, a physicist and nuclear expert with the Union of Concerned Scientists adds, “The nuclear non-proliferation treaty has two purposes, and it has succeeded at preventing other states from getting nuclear weapons. It has failed in its second purpose, which is getting the nuclear weapons states to disarm. I support the ban treaty because it will pressure the nuclear weapons states to do what they are already obligated to do.”
Tegmark explains, “The UN treaty … will create stigma, which, as a first step, will pressure countries to slash their excessive arsenals down to the minimal size needed for deterrence.”
Information note for delegations
Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons – Information kit on signature and ratification
Certified true copy of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
Text of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons – as adopted on 7 July 2017
Draft Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons – dated 6 July 2017
7 July 2017 – Voting results on L.3/Rev.1
THE ONLY OPTION IS A GLOBAL COALITION FOR TOTAL ELIMINATION
Parliamentarians and political leaders play a significant role in shaping global policies that will advance the elimination of the world’s most dangerous bombs.
We work with different stakeholders in both public and private sectors, as well as within civil society organizations and multilateral institutions to advance campaigns that make it very difficult for countries to develop nuclear bombs for the first time, or for countries that already have them, to make more powerful bombs.
We support the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) because it not only prevents the huge damage caused by radioactivity from nuclear explosions to humans, animals, plants and our planet, but it bans nuclear explosions by everyone, everywhere: on the Earth’s surface, in the atmosphere, underwater and underground.
Let’s amplify our collective commitment and voices to make our world a better place because that’s the only thing we got free of charge, we are all in this together.