International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons
Join people all over the world on September 26 in an event or action to support the global elimination of nuclear weapons.
About Nuclear Abolition Day
In 2013, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 68/32 declaring September 26 to be the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. The principal objective of the day is to “enhance public awareness and education about the threat posed to humanity by nuclear weapons and the necessity for their total elimination, in order to mobilize international efforts towards achieving the common goal of a nuclear-weapon-free world.”
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Every year on this date, the UN holds a high-level meeting of world leaders to discuss “urgent and effective measures” to achieve global nuclear disarmament. At the same time, citizens around the world organize events and undertake actions to support nuclear weapons abolition.
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September 26 is also the anniversary of one of the times in which humanity has come perilously close to nuclear war. On this date in 1983, a nuclear weapons early warning facility in Russia detected an apparent incoming ballistic missile attack from the USA (later confirmed as a false alarm). Colonel Stanislav Petrov, Duty Officer at the facility, broke protocol by not affirming to senior command that the early warning satellites were detecting incoming nuclear missiles, thus preventing a possible ‘launch-on-warning, retaliatory nuclear strike’ from Russia, which would have triggered nuclear war.
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See About for more background on Nuclear Abolition Day.
Message from the United Nations Secretary-General
Message from UN Secretary General António Guterres for the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, 2025
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​Nuclear weapons deliver no security — only the promise of annihilation.
The International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons calls on us to remember this central lesson of the Cold War, when humanity gambled with its very survival across decades.
Sadly, the shadow of nuclear annihilation is still with us and spreading fast, fueled by divisions and mistrust, along with rising military spending, growing stockpiles, and countries rattling the nuclear saber as a means of coercion.
Humanity is headed in the wrong direction. It’s time to chart a new course for lasting peace through disarmament. In last September’s Pact for the Future, Member States recommitted to the goal of the total elimination of nuclear weapons. Countries must place dialogue over division and disarmament over destruction — not through words, but through action.
On this important day, I call on states that possess nuclear weapons to lift this shadow hanging over humanity. Honour your disarmament obligations and commit to the total elimination of nuclear weapons.
which will be released soon.
Video message from Michael Douglas
Michael Douglas, Hollywood actor and UN Messenger for Peace, joins NuclearAbolitionDay.org in calling for action to prevent nuclear war and achieve the elimination of nuclear weapons.
In a video statement for the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons recorded by the Global Security Institute, Mr Douglas calls on "...all of us - every leader and every citizen - to insist on sanity. This time of turbulence compels a clear message: Stop threatening all our lives and our children's future. Nuclear disarmament now."
Joint Appeal for Nuclear Abolition Day
We invite individuals and organizations to endorse the Joint Appeal for Nuclear Abolition Day.
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The appeal calls on governments to affirm that the threat or use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible, and announce concrete plans to:
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Reduce nuclear risks and prevent nuclear war;
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Commit to achieving the global elimination of nuclear weapons within a reasonable timeframe (no later than the 100th anniversary of the UN).
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Redirect the billions spent on nuclear weapons to urgent global needs—peace, protection, and sustainable development—as envisioned in Article 26 of the UN Charter
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The Appeal was initially presented to the UN High-Level Plenary Meeting on the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons on September 26 by Dr. Deepshikha Kumari Vijh, a Core Team Member of NuclearAbolitionDay.org.
It was subsequently presented by Dr Vijh to the United Nations First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) on October 17, 2025 (See Civil Society Calls on UN Disarmament Committee to Stop Nuclear Weapons).
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"As the First Committee convenes its 80th session, we are reminded that law, not force, must be the foundation of security. Let this session be remembered not for hesitation or delay, but as the moment when humanity chose hope over fear, and disarmament over destruction, for our planet, our life, and future generations,
yet to come.”
Dr Deepshikha Kumari Vijh presenting the Nuclear Abolition Day Appeal to the UN First Committee on October 17, 2025
Law not Force must be the foundation of our security
Stop Nuclear Weapons: Peace is in our Hands
Social media action
We invite everyone, where-ever you are in the world, to undertake the September 26 social media action Stop Nuclear Weapons: Peace is in our Hands. The action is based on a hand raised with palm facing forwards, which is a universal message to stop. Hands are also
what we use to greet each other, create things and build cooperation.
For this social media action, we use our hands or the NuclearAbolitionDay hand graphic to symbolically stop nuclear weapons and to build cooperation for a peaceful, nuclear-weapon-free world.
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Below are examples. For more information and additional examples, see our Social Media page.
Anna Lebedeva (Kazakhstan), Chris Guillot (Switzerland) and Natia Ninoshvili (Georgia) doing a Stop Nuclear Weapons: Peace is in our Hands social media action in front of the United Nations in Geneva
Michael Douglas, Hollywood actor, UN Peace Messenger and supporter of NuclearAbolitionDay with STOP (nuclear weapons) on his hand.
Joining hands for peace and nuclear disarmament. At the Good Future Forum in Basel, August 2025