Peace Party is pleased to re-post part of an e-mail from the International Peace Bureau on the crying need to abolish nuclear weapons:
“We live with the increasing danger of nuclear weapons that continue to threaten the survival of humanity.
“The existence of nearly 15,000 of such weapons, many ready to be launched on warning, pose an imminent threat to us all. With the collapse of the INF Treaty, the resulting breakdown of the world’s arms control systems, and the new era of super power confrontation, we are threatened by unrestrained nuclear arms races.
“We have been aware for a long time that any nuclear weapon detonation will have long-term catastrophic humanitarian consequences on a global scale, impacting on health, the environment, socio-economic development and world economies. Whether used intentionally, or as a result of miscalculation or accident, the risks posed by a nuclear weapons explosion are unacceptably high. We all live under the threat of nuclear annihilation.
“The abolition of nuclear weapons is no longer a dream – it has become an urgent necessity.
“Faced with this situation, civil society, together with the overwhelming majority of the world’s governments, rose up and achieved the adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) at the U.N. on July 7, 2017. This marked a historic step to ban nuclear weapons once and for all.
“Since September 2017, when it was first opened for signature, the process of adoption of the treaty has gone well, 70 countries have so far signed and 22 have already ratified the Treaty. It is widely expected that the 50 ratifications needed for the treaty to enter into force will be achieved by 2020.
“However, the UK as one of the nuclear armed states, is resisting the Treaty and ignoring its legal obligations as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to negotiate “in good faith” the complete elimination of its nuclear arsenal.”
The Peace Party opposes the possession and manufacture of and trade in all weapons, nuclear and conventional. Conflicts must always be resolved without violence; war is abhorrent.