Nukewatch Quarterly Summer 2022
By Kelly Lundeen
As you are reading your Nukewatch Quarterly, Joe Biden may be reading his daily Delaware News Journal noticing the ad with the statement (below), “The Existential Threat of Nuclear Weapons and the Treaty on The Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons” (TPNW). The Nuclear Ban Treaty Collaborative, of which Nukewatch is a member, placed the ad and is working to raise awareness of the nuclear ban treaty by calling on U.S. media to recognize the existence of the Treaty and to include it in news coverage regarding the nuclear threat and solutions. If your organization hasn’t signed onto this statement, visit <nuclearbantreaty.org> to do so.
This summer is set to be one of anti-nuclear actions with the commemoration of the 1982 million-person nuclear-abolition march, the first Meeting of States Parties (MSP) about the TPNW, both in June, and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Review Conference in August. The latter two meetings have been postponed due to coronavirus restrictions but are now scheduled within two months of each other. In the lead-up to these events, the Nuclear Ban Treaty Collaborative has coordinated a nationwide media event to release the statement on June 7, as groups around the country call on news outlets to boost coverage of the TPNW. June 12 marks the 40th anniversary of the largest peace demonstration in U.S. history in 1982, the nuclear disarmament protest that contributed to the end of the cold war — when more than a million people gathered in New York City. A New York-based live-stream by RootsAction.org will serve as a catalyst for grassroots organizing to remember our history and re-imagine our future.
You can get involved by organizing a local event to align with the MSP to the TPNW, which takes place in Vienna, Austria June 21-23 with 60 nations meeting to discuss universalizing the Treaty, assistance to survivors of nuclear weapons use and testing, and environmental remediation of contaminated areas — issues that have never before been addressed by an international treaty.
Nukewatch’s John LaForge will attend the MSP and report “live-stream” from Vienna. Look for the date and time to be determined, sign your organization onto the statement, and watch for action alerts to commemorate the Trinity bomb test, and the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings at nuclearbantreaty.org.
The Existential Threat of Nuclear Weapons & the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
Please join hundreds of other groups, and sign on to this Statement here: <nuclearbantreaty.org>
The power to initiate a global apocalypse lies in the hands of the leaders of nine nations.
As 122 nations of the world indicated when they adopted the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in July, 2017, this is unacceptable.
As concerns about the threat of nuclear weapons re-enter the public consciousness, it is important to know that humankind is not without an answer to the nuclear threat. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which entered into force on January 22, 2021, provides a clear pathway to the elimination of the nuclear threat.
We call on all nuclear-armed states to take immediate steps to:
• Engage the Treaty on the Prohibition of
Nuclear Weapons;
• Attend the First Meeting of States Parties;
• Sign, ratify, and implement the Treaty.
We also call on the U.S. media to recognize the existence of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and to include the Treaty in discussions, articles, and editorials regarding the nuclear threat and methods available to address it.
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