Antinuclear

Abolishing nuclear weapons is a paramount challenge for all people and governments. Nine nations today possess more than 15,000 nuclear weapons, with the United States and Russia maintaining around 1,800 of theirs on high alert – ready to launch within minutes. Most are many times more powerful than the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945. A single nuclear warhead, if detonated on a large city, could kill millions of people, with the radiological effects persisting for decades. The failure of the nuclear powers to disarm has heightened the risk that other nations will one day acquire nuclear weapons. The only guarantee against the spread and use of nuclear weapons is to eliminate them. Although the leaders of some nuclear-armed nations have expressed their vision for a world without nuclear weapons, all have failed to set out detailed plans to eliminate their arsenals, and are instead upgrading them. A THREAT TO ALL HUMANITY Nuclear weapons are unique in their destructive power and the threat they pose to human survival. They release vast amounts of energy in the form of blast, heat and radiation.

No adequate humanitarian response is possible. In addition to causing tens of millions of immediate deaths, a regional nuclear war using less than 1 per cent of the world’s arsenal would disrupt the climate and agricultural production so severely that two billion people would be at risk of famine. But the good news is that the international debate on nuclear weapons has started to shift away from narrow concepts of national security to focus instead on the humanitarian impact of the weapons. The resulting picture is clear: a ban on nuclear weapons is urgently needed.

Banning nuclear weapons Nuclear weapons are the only weapons of mass destruction not yet explicitly prohibited under international law. Nations must work together to fill this unacceptable “legal gap”.

Both other types of weapons of mass destruction – chemical and biological weapons – have long been prohibited under international law, and are subject to frameworks requiring their total elimination. It is past time for nuclear weapons, the most destructive weapons of all, to be similarly banned. The current framework regulating nuclear weapons is fragmented and patchy. A new treaty is needed to prohibit all activities involving nuclear weapons in all circumstances for all nations. History demonstrates that the prohibition of certain weapons systems – their possession as well as their use – precedes and facilitates their elimination. Weapons that are outlawed are increasingly accepted as illegitimate, and lose their political status. It is more difficult for arms companies to acquire resources for the production and modernisation of a prohibited weapon.

A DIPLOMATIC PROCESS Three major diplomatic conferences were organised in 2013 and 2014 to shed new light on the dangers of living in a world armed to the brink with nuclear weapons. By reframing the debate on nuclear weapons, they clarified the urgent need for action by the international community to advance abolition. More than 80 per cent of UN members have said that nuclear weapons should never be used again under any circumstances, and a clear majority have concluded that it is time to ban them given their catastrophic humanitarian consequences.

Ten reasons for a ban……….

Australia’s involvement.…….

Australia should be at the forefront of global efforts to outlaw and eliminate nuclear weapons – not clinging onto the misguided belief that we are protected by these weapons of mass destruction……….. http://www.icanw.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/ICAN-Australia-2015.pdf