Antinuclear

Australia should join growing global push for treaty banning nuclear weapons

ICAN 24 May 2016  This Friday, 27 May, US President Barack Obama will make an historic visit to Hiroshima, which was devastated by a US nuclear bomb in the final days of World War II. It will be the first time a sitting US president has visited the city.

The White House has made clear that he will not apologise for the attacks, but his visit will nevertheless be an important acknowledgement of the horror caused by nuclear weapons. Hiroshima survivor Junko Morimoto, who now lives in Sydney, said: “It is great that President Obama will visit Hiroshima to pay his respects to the victims of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. All we ask for is an ongoing commitment to global nuclear disarmament.”

In recent years, the Australian Government has vocally opposed efforts by two-thirds of the world’s nations to negotiate a treaty banning nuclear weapons, claiming instead to rely on security provided by “extended nuclear deterrence”. In contrast, the Australian Labor Party last year declared support for a ban treaty in its revised national policy platform.

At a recent UN meeting in Geneva, 127 nations proposed the start of negotiations on a ban treaty. These nations believe that nuclear weapons are illegitimate and immoral given their devastating humanitarian impacts. Several nations have specifically proposed that negotiations on a ban treaty begin in 2017 and be concluded by 2018. This proposal will be voted on in the UN General Assembly in October this year.

“The Australian Government should take the opportunity of President Obama’s historic visit to move away from its cold-war era policies that undermine nuclear disarmament. It is more than seven decades since nuclear catastrophe was unleashed on Hiroshima. It is well beyond time to outlaw these ultimate weapons of mass destruction,” said Tim Wright, Asia Pacific Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).

“Australia has become increasingly isolated in our region as the only member of the South Pacific nuclear-free zone to insist that these horrendous weapons are necessary for its security. The government should look at what nuclear weapons do to people and the environment, and join the majority of nations in working to ban them.”

May 25, 2016 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | General News