Stop Nuclear Weapons: Leaders of the UN and Member States, Celebrities and Civil Society Called for Action on Nuclear Abolition Day, September 26

Dr. Deepshikha Kumari Vijh presenting the appeal at the UN High Level meeting

On September 26, the President of the UN General Assembly hosted a High-Level Plenary Meeting to commemorate the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.

This International Day marks the date in 1983 when nuclear war was narrowly averted thanks to a brave Soviet colonel who defied command orders and prevented retaliatory fire on a false alarm. 

Occurring during the 80^th anniversary years of the United States bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the establishment of the United Nations, and with the Doomsday Clock of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists closer than ever to midnight, the High-Level Plenary resonated profoundly. 

Leaders (Presidents, Prime Ministers, Foreign Ministers and Ambassadors) from 75 countries (including three of the nuclear-armed States) and four regional/political groups (Africa Group, Arab League, Non-Aligned Movement and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) came together at the United Nations to speak about ways to prevent nuclear war and achieve global nuclear disarmament. 

The meeting was opened with a message from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterrez, delivered by Chef de Cabinet, Courtenay Rattray, in which the UNSG warned that “We are sleepwalking into a new nuclear arms race, more complex, more unpredictable, and even more dangerous. The risks of escalation and miscalculation are multiplying.”  Disarmament is the foundation of peace, he said while calling on all countries possessing nuclear weapons to return to dialogue in efforts to "forge a world free of these weapons of extinction."

“The UN has effective frameworks for reducing nuclear dangers,” said Annalena Baerbock, President of the UN General Assembly in her address. “Each member state has to live up to them, especially those who possess them… The most simple thing would be to commit to policies of No First Use… rather than pouring resources into new arsenals we should invest in the biggest security threat for all humankind of this century - the climate crisis."

The High-Level Plenary Meeting was also addressed by two speakers representing civil society: Satoshi TANAKA, Executive Board member of Nihon Hidankyo, the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations; and Dr. Deepshikha Kumari Vijh, Executive Director of the Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy and Coordination Team Member of NuclearAbolitionDay.org, a global network established to build civil society cooperation for the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.

“The 80th anniversary of the United Nations coincides with the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” said Dr. Deepshikha Kumari Vijh. “These are events that testify that no use of nuclear weapons could ever comply with international humanitarian law given their indiscriminate effects and catastrophic humanitarian consequences.”

Dr Vijh used the occasion of the High-Level meeting to present to the UN and its Member States, a Joint Appeal for Nuclear Abolition Day. The appeal has been endorsed by more than 1500 organizations and individuals from around the world including parliamentarians, local body representatives, religious leaders, Nobel Laureates, former diplomats, academics/scientists, medical professionals, youth leaders and other members of civil society. It calls on all UN Member States to: 

1. Affirm that the threat or use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible; 

2. Stand down nuclear forces and adopt policies never to initiate a nuclear war;

3. Commit to eliminating nuclear weapons no later than the United Nation’s 100th anniversary in 2045; 

4. 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.

   
   

 *  Read the full presentation by Dr Deepshikha Kumari Vijh 

The UN High-Level meeting was complemented by additional statements, social media actions and public events for Nuclear Abolition Day from around the world. 

Michael Douglas, Oscar Award Winner and UN Peace Messenger released a video message for Nuclear Abolition Day, recorded by the Global Security Institute, calling 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."

In The Hague, members of the public were invited to engage in the #3DNukeMissile, an interactive art piece on nuclear risk-reduction which was displayed in front of the International Court of Justice. The action highlighted the historic 1996 Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice that affirmed the general illegality of the threat or use of nuclear weapons and the universal obligation to achieve their elimination.

“Nuclear armed and allied States can’t avoid the nuclear disarmament obligation on the excuse that they need nuclear weapons for security,” says Alyn Ware, International Representative of Aotearoa Lawyers for Peace, who organized the Hague event. “In order to fulfill this obligation, they are required to meet their security needs in other ways, including in accordance with the UN Charter which prohibits the threat or use of force.”

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) youth from the Shujaa-initiative organized a Stop Nuclear Weapons: Peace is in our Hands social media action to support the global abolition of nuclear weapons and to highlight the destructive impact of uranium mining from the Shinkolobwe mine. This mining has provided uranium for United States nuclear weapons (including the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki), while contaminating the environment and causing adverse impacts on the health of people in the region. 

“Uranium mining generates radioactive pollution with alarming consequences that permanently contaminate not only humans but also our common home, Mother Earth” noted Shujaa Initiative co-founder Seth Tsongo. “Radioactive waste, often managed in unacceptable conditions, pollutes our soil, water, and atmosphere, compromising the health of present and future generations.” (For more information see The Shinkolobwe Uranium Mines in the DRC: Nuclear Weapons, Human Health and the Environment). 

In New York, Pax Christi NY led an interfaith gathering at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza just opposite the United Nations, while downtown, at the footsteps of City Hall, AwareNearth and the ImPact Coalition on Strengthening International Judicial Institutions exhibited “Peace is in our Hands,” a participatory multimedia creation, supported by Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament (PNND).

“It was impactful to hear from such a diverse array of perspectives on the existential dangers posed by nuclear weapons,” says Jasmine Chen, PNND Program Officer. “Although not a topic many people think about day to day, when asked, it was clear that most viewed nuclear weapons as unacceptable.”

This is just a selection of events and actions around the world that demonstrate the concern of civil society at the increasing risks of nuclear war and the unfulfilled obligations of States to end nuclear threats and to work constructively to achieve a nuclear-weapon-free world.  As Dr Vijh concluded in her presentation to the UN High-Level Meeting:

“Let this 80th anniversary 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.”