Kala Hunter, courtesy of Tri-Valley CAREs
A major milestone on the long road to ridding the world entirely of nuclear weapons was reached on Jan. 22, as the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons officially became part of international law.
That road began Jan. 24, 1946, when the newly formed United Nations adopted its very first resolution, just months after the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the final days of World War II. Resolution 1(1), which the General Assembly adopted by consensus, established a commission of the UN Security Council to ensure “the elimination from national armaments of atomic weapons and all other major weapons adaptable to mass destruction.”
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This treaty – the initiative of hundreds of organizations and individuals from around the world that united under the banner of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons – was ready to be signed in September 2017, after a difficult battle with the nuclear powers and their supporters, which as expected did everything possible to thwart it. No nuclear states took part in the conference that negotiated the terms of the accord, which took place at the United Nations in March and in June-July 2017.
Discussions on the treaty only began after a failed attempt by the United States to deny funding to the conference. The Netherlands, the only one of NATO’s then-29 member states to participate in the event, was also the only one of the 124 participating states to vote against the treaty. One country, Singapore, abstained. In an extraordinary gesture of protest, the U.S. and British ambassadors to the UN, as well as e
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Jan 22 celebrations (clockwise from upper left): Kansas City, Seattle, UN Secretariat building, Johns Hopkins in Baltimore.
It is the international news story that the United States “establishment” wants you to ignore: nuclear weapons have been declared illegal under international law. Fortunately, civil society people including PSR members spread the news of the new treaty across the USA, often with a touch of creativity.
On Friday, January 22, the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) ‘entered into force’, changing the legal status of nuclear weapons forevermore. This is a historic milestone along the road to total abolition of nuclear weapons. Entry into force also signaled a central accomplishment for the International Campaign for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and its 400+ partner organizations in 106 nations. PSR is proud to be an ICAN partner organization.
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A candlelight message in front of the A-Bomb Dome in Hiroshima on Jan. 22 when the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons took effect (Jun Ueda)
Japanese college students are answering the call from atomic bomb survivors to carry on their fight to get Japan and other nations to sign the U.N. treaty banning nuclear weapons.
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons took effect on Jan. 22, but Japan, the only nation to have atomic bombs dropped on it during war, has not signed it.
Hibakusha have long called for the elimination of nuclear weapons, but as the victims of the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are now in their twilight years, they have often voiced fear that no one will carry on their cause after they re gone.