August 6 (Hiroshima Day) and August 9 (Nagasaki Day) are global days of action for nuclear abolition. UNFOLD ZERO encourages you to take action on these days to:
- promote the new nuclear ban treaty if you are in a non-nuclear country;
- promote nuclear risk-reduction and disarmament measures if you are in a nuclear-armed or allied country;
- call on your government to participate in the 2018 UN High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament at the highest level (prime minister or president);
- sign the ATOM Project online petition for a nuclear-weapon-free world;
- encourage your parliamentarian, mayor or religious leader to endorse the joint statement ‘A Nuclear-Weapon-Free World: Our Common Good‘ if they have not already done so.
Nuclear ban treaty
On July 7, 2017, the United Nations adopted a Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons supported by 122 countries. The treaty will be open for signature on September 20 and will enter-into-force once 50 States ratify.
If you live in a non-nuclear-weapon country, you can call on your government to sign the ban treaty, which will open for signature at the United Nations General Assembly on September 20, and to ratify the treaty before the UN High-Level Conference in 2018.
The aim is to have 50 countries ratify the treaty by the time of UN High-Level conference so that it can enter-into-force by then.
Nuclear risk reduction and disarmament measures.
The nuclear-armed and allied countries have announced that they will not join the ban treaty. So in these countries you can call on your government to:
- take all nuclear weapons off alert;
- adopt no-first-use policies
- end the modernisation of nuclear weapons;
- make cuts in nuclear stockpiles;
- end the deployment of nuclear weapons in foreign countries (such as NATO nuclear sharing);
- negotiate a framework agreement to achieve a nuclear-weapon-free world.
Ask you government to announce or adopt these at the 2018 UN HIgh-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament, if not before. (See UN High-Level Conference – Abolition 2000).
On December 3, 2016, the UN General Assembly adopted ground-breaking Resolution 71/71, supported by over 140 countries, calling for an international treaty to prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons that would include the nuclear-armed States, and affirming its decision to hold a High Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament no later than 2018 to review progress.
Recent UN High-Level Conferences have been very successful, adopting the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (2015), Paris Agreement on Climate Change (2016), New York Declaration on Refugees and Migrants (2016) and 14-Point Action Plan to Protect our Oceans (2017). We should expect no less from the High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament.
Call on your government to participate in the 2018 UN High-Level Conference at the highest level (prime minister or president).
For updates and actions see Abolition 2000 Working Group on the 2018 UN High Level Conference.
Sign the ATOM Project petition online
The ATOM Project is an international campaign, led by victims from nuclear testing, to inform the global community about the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons and the imperative for nuclear disarmament.
Sign the ATOM Project online petition calling for a nuclear-weapon-free world. Over 300,000 have endorsed so far. Let’s get to 1/2 a million.
The petition is being used in a number of international forums and promoted to governments.
A nuclear-weapon-free world: Our Common Good
This joint statement of religious leaders, mayors and parliamentarians was adopted in Hiroshima on the 70th anniversary of the nuclear bombing of the city, and is being used to promote nuclear disarmament initiatives globally.
It was presented to the UN Open Ended Working Group on Taking Forward Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament Negotiations in February 2016, and to the UN Conference to Negotiate the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in June 2017.
Endorsements are now being gathered in preparation for it to be presented to the 2018 UN High-Level Conference to encourage concrete action by governments at the conference.
Invite your mayor, parliamentarian(s) and/or religious leaders to endorse the joint statement if they have not already done so.
The statement is available in Arabic, English, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. Send your endorsements to info@baselpeaceoffice.org
