Let’s urge the Australian government to get off the fence and vote YES FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT.
Gem Romuld, Director, ICAN Australia, 17 Oct 24
In one week, Australia will vote on several resolutions on nuclear weapons at the United Nations. While our political representatives can, and do, make compelling speeches about their commitment to ending nuclear weapons, these UN votes are important indicators of where government policy is really at.
For the last couple of years, Australia has abstained on both the Resolution on the Humanitarian Impacts of Nuclear Weapons and the Resolution on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. It’s time to get off the fence and vote “Yes” for a future free of nuclear weapons.
| The Resolution on the Humanitarian Impacts of Nuclear Weapons stresses that the “immense and uncontrollable destructive capability and indiscriminate nature of nuclear weapons cause unacceptable humanitarian consequences” and it calls for all states to “achieve nuclear disarmament”. Australia’s abstentions on this resolution are totally inconsistent with its “solemn recognition of the devastating humanitarian consequences of nuclear war” and “enduring commitment to the objective of a world without nuclear weapons”, as stated by Amanda Gorely, Australia’s Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, 10 October 2024. There is no good reason that Australia should continue to abstain. |
| The way Australia votes at the UN matters. It is one way that the Australian public, our regional neighbours and the globe can understand our government’s true position on a range of issues. Write to the Foreign Minister NOW to let her know that you are watching, that you care, and that it’s time to get off the fence and vote yes for a future free of nuclear weapons. |
| We are so excited that Nihon Hidankyo, the Japanese organisation of atomic bomb survivors, will be awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. They have been telling their harrowing stories of survival and campaigning for nuclear abolition for decades. No reasonable person can listen to the testimony of an atomic bomb survivor and still tolerate the existence of a single nuclear weapon. We must heed Nihon Hidankyo’s warning “Nuclear weapons and humanity cannot coexist.” |
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