Antinuclear

From No to Now: United civil society call on UN Day for Australia to support a nuclear weapons ban treaty

 Monday 24^th October 2016   Organisations representing hundreds of thousands of Australians have joined the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons in a call for the Australian Government to support a growing global push to prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons.

In an open letter to foreign minister Julie Bishop ahead of a vote expected in the UN this week the fifty groups have urged Australia to ‘grasp this historic opportunity to outlaw nuclear weapons’ and to support increasing momentum for a UN conference in 2017 to ‘negotiate a legally-binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons’.

The Australian Government’s opposition to a ban on nuclear weapons is increasingly at odds with the majority of nations, including in our region where ASEAN nations and Pacific Island states have joined New Zealand in strongly supporting moves for a ban.

“We’ve waited a long time for the Nuclear Weapons States to fulfil their obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and they have failed,” said former independent Senator for nuclear disarmament Jo Vallentine. “It is time for Australia to do an about-turn and get on to the right side of this historic decision”. Ms Vallentine will take part in a delegation delivering the letter to the Foreign Minister’s Perth office on United Nations day, Monday 24^th October, before heading to the UN in New York for the historic vote.

“A 2014 Neilsen poll showed over eighty percent of Australians support a treaty banning nuclear weapons and it is time for the Australian position on this existential issue to move from No to Now”, said ICAN Australia’s Gem Romuld.

Signatories to the open letter comprise union, faith, women’s, public health, environment and international development organisations including the Australian Medical Association, Oxfam Australia, Australian Conservation Foundation, Uniting Justice and the Union of Australian Women, among many others.

October 24, 2016 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | ACTION