What the Nuclear Ban Implies: Struggles Against Them by Communities and Smaller Countries Are Now Legal | DiaNuke.org

The coming into effect of the Treaty on Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) will empower and breathe new life into the struggles of affected communities, destroyed landscapes  and smaller countries for a nuclear-free world.

The decades long ‘legal gap’ on nuclear weapons has finally been bridged. With the ratification of the Treaty on Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), popularly known as the Nuclear Ban Treaty by Honduras today, the requirement of 50 UN member-states acceding to the treaty is complete and the production, possession and use of nuclear weapons will henceforth be deemed illegal, internationally.

While the United States has consistently pressurized countries against supporting the treaty, other nuclear weapons powers, including China and India, distanced themselves from the cause, despite their long-standing posture of being ‘reluctant’ nuclear states, ready to espouse disarmament if pursued universally. In 2016 when the 122 countries voted for the Nuclear Ban Treaty in the UN, China boycotted the negotiations while India abstained on rather flimsy grounds.

While the entry into force of the TPNW will not automatically and immediately render global nuclear abolition a reality, what sets it apart from other nuclear disarmament endeavours is that it does not leave its goals up to the benevolence of the nuclear-haves. The nuclear ban achieves something fundamental and rather commonsensical: from now on, every conversation about nuclear weapons will be one about illegal weapons of terror, and every transaction related to them will not just be morally abhorrent, but prohibited under the law. Surprisingly for all these decades, while land mines, cluster munitions, use of torture etc. were deemed illegal, nukes were not!

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What the Nuclear Ban Implies: Struggles Against Them by Communities and Smaller Countries Are Now Legal | DiaNuke.org

Head of Nobel Peace Prize-Winning Group: Trump’s Nuclear Policy “Puts Us on Path Toward Nuclear War” | Democracy Now!

A treaty intended to limit the United States and Russia’s long-range nuclear arsenals officially takes effect today. But the once-promising treaty, signed eight years ago by President Obama, is overshadowed by a new nuclear arms race sparked by President Trump. On Friday, the Trump administration unveiled its new nuclear weapons strategy, which involves spending at least $1.2 trillion to upgrade the United States’ nuclear arsenal, including developing some completely new nuclear weapons. Prominent anti-nuclear advocates have denounced the Pentagon’s plan as “radical” and “extreme.” For more, we speak with Beatrice Fihn, executive director of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

AMY GOODMAN: Prominent anti-nuclear advocates have denounced the Pentagon’s plan as “radical” and “extreme.” World leaders have also criticized the plan. Russia said it risked provoking a renewed nuclear arms race. China accused Trump of engaging in a new Cold War. Iran’s foreign minister said the plan brings the world “closer to annihilation.”

This comes as the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists advanced the Doomsday Clock 30 seconds closer to midnight. The clock is a symbolic timekeeper that tracks the likelihood of nuclear war and other existential threats. It now stands closer to midnight than at any time since 1953. The scientists directly cited President Trump’s nuclear policies as one of the reasons for advancing the clock.

For more, we go to Geneva, Switzerland, where we’re joined by Beatrice Fihn, the executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. It is the latest organization to win the Nobel Peace Prize. It won in December.

Beatrice Fihn, well, first of all, congratulations on the Nobel Peace Prize. And talk about what this, what’s called the NPR, the Nuclear Posture Review, the Trump administration’s plans for nuclear weapons, what it means for world peace.

BEATRICE FIHN: It’s a really dangerous new policy. We have already had a very dangerous status quo for many years. And this just increases, really, the risk of nuclear war. It is a policy that lowers the threshold for using nuclear weapons and develops new types of nuclear weapons that would be easier for President Trump to use. It’s dangerous, and it puts us on the path towards nuclear war, if we don’t act now.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Beatrice Fihn, what are the commitments right now of the United States in terms of lowering or reducing its nuclear arsenal?

BEATRICE FIHN: Well, the United States has signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which commits it to negotiating good-faith nuclear disarmament. But so far, that has not taken place. But it’s not just the United States. All nuclear-armed states, including Russia and China, France, U.K., are modernizing their nuclear arsenals, upgrading instead of reducing their arsenals.

AMY GOODMAN: Let’s go to a clip of President Trump giving his State of the Union last week. He said he would beef up the U.S. nuclear arsenal and dismiss global efforts to ban nuclear weapons…

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Head of Nobel Peace Prize-Winning Group: Trump’s Nuclear Policy “Puts Us on Path Toward Nuclear War” | Democracy Now!

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This animation shows how terrifyingly powerful nuclear weapons have become | Tech Insider (Facebook)

WATCH: This animation shows how terrifyingly powerful nuclear weapons have become | Tech Insider (Facebook)

Dutch parliament: Negotiate a ban! - No Nukes Netherlands | ican

On Thursday, 23 April the Dutch Parliament (Tweede Kamer) adopted a motion saying the government must join, in a substantive manner, international negotiations on a treaty banning nuclear weapons, without preventively judging an end result.

During the debate on the NPT, Minister of Foreign Affairs Koenders made it clear that he was not willing to join negotiations- because he believes banning nuclear weapons is the last step, following their elimination.  A  majority of the parliament disagreed and said the government should not judge a process before it has started and urged the government to join future negotiations...

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Dutch parliament: Negotiate a ban! - No Nukes Netherlands

No Nukes is Pax's campaign for a world free of nuclear weapons. No Nukes seeks opportunities to strengthen the global non-proliferation regime and to accelerate global nuclear disarmament by stigmatizing, outlawing and eliminating nuclear weapons. 

PAX means peace. PAX brings together people who have the courage to stand for peace. Together with people in conflict areas and concerned citizens worldwide, PAX works to build just and peaceful societies across the globe.

ican: icanw.org

Global Wave | Tri-Valley CAREs

Tri-Valley CAREs organized a Global Wave event at the gate of Livermore Lab on Sunday, April 26th as part of the international gathering beginning today in New York later for the 5-year Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).

Our picture will be included in a slide show shown to the full UN on Friday with dozens of other events from around the world. Thanks to all who took part.

Tri-Valley CAREs