United Nations & International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons – 2014-09-29 02:23:25
http://www.un.org/en/events/nuclearweaponelimination/
September 26: International Day for the
Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons
United Nations
“Nuclear disarmament is one of the greatest legacies we can pass on to future generations.”
— Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
NEW YORK (September 23, 2014) — Achieving global nuclear disarmament is one of the oldest goals of the United Nations. It was the subject of the General Assembly’s first resolution in 1946. It has been on the General Assembly’s agenda along with general and complete disarmament ever since 1959. It has been a prominent theme of review conferences held at the UN since 1975 of States parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It was identified a priority goal of the General Assembly’s first Special Session on disarmament in 1978, which attached a special priority to nuclear disarmament. And it has been supported by every United Nations Secretary-General.
Yet today, some 17,000 nuclear weapons remain. Countries possessing such weapons have well-funded, long-range plans to modernize their nuclear arsenals. More than half of the world’s population still lives in countries that either have such weapons or are members of nuclear alliances. As of 2014, not one nuclear weapon has been physically destroyed pursuant to a treaty, bilateral or multilateral, and no nuclear disarmament negotiations are underway.
Meanwhile, the doctrine of nuclear deterrence persists as an element in the security policies of all possessor states and their nuclear allies. This is so — despite growing concerns worldwide over the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of the use of even a single nuclear weapon, let alone a regional or global nuclear war.
These facts provide the foundation for the General Assembly’s designation of 26 September as the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. This Day provides an occasion for the world community to reaffirm its commitment to global nuclear disarmament as a high priority. It provides an opportunity to educate the public — and their leaders — about the real benefits of eliminating such weapons, and the social and economic costs of perpetuating them.
Commemorating this Day at the United Nations is especially important, given its universal membership and its long experience in grappling with nuclear disarmament issues. It is the right place to address one of humanity’s greatest challenges, achieving the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.
ICAN COSTA RICA
Dear friends,
COSTA RICA — I want to tell you what Costa Rica is doing for this important day, the 26 of September, Nuclear Abolition Day. Today, two of my PNND members are going to do a motion at our National Assembly to support the International Day of the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, 26 of September.
On the 26, we are going to the University of Costa Rica to film different students on “how many weapons do you think there are on the world” and “how many should there be” and get as many instagram photos of them holding a sign with #thecourageto and #goodbyenukes More signatures for the Parliamentary Appeal are on the way as well! Hope everybody is doing great!! Un abrazo, IPPNW Costa Rica
ICAN TUNISIA
Dear Campaigners,
Greetings from Tunisia!
Today is International Nuclear Abolition Day and I would like to share the ways that International Campaign to has been working to achieve this goal in the past month.
The Tunisian institute for Human Rights (TIHRS), in partnership with the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, organized a series of regional town hall meeting in Tunis, Bizerte, Jendouba, and Al Kef. Through these town hall meetings, we raised awareness among all segments of civil society and mobilized them to action. Through widespread collaboration with Tunisian civil society, our NGO will work towards achieving universal human rights by promoting this imperative ban on nuclear weapons.
With that, As a human rights activist I’d like to announce the establishment of the first Tunisian Network for a Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapons. Working together, we will continue educating the public about the catastrophic humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons and elevate our discourse to a national level.
My integration in public government hearings initially sparked my desire to bring the discourse of non proliferation to Tunisia , and to focus my efforts on building a strong coalition of non-nuclear state actors. As a human rights activist, I was very able to apply the discourse of non-proliferation to a wider audience, and has allowed me to spread the importance of the humanitarian and environmental aspects of disarmament and destruction of present nuclear arsenals.
We are currently preparing the upcoming events in the south of Tunisia in cooperation with civil society organizations next October.
We received a huge Arab and Tunisian media coverage during our first stage of town hall meeting. Attached to this email some photos and some news reports about the activities organized by ICAN-TUNISIA along with the Tunisian Institute of Human Rights Studies.
Here’s Some links of my interventions in Media:
ICAN Activities photos in Tunisia:
Thank you very much for your support!
See all soon 🙂
Best, Ashraf
ICAN COSTA RICA
Dear Campaigners,
Wishing you all a very successful observance, Thanks for sharing the wonderful activities of the campaign in Spain, France and Denmark and others.
Is it useful to use “Nuclear abolition day” and “International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons” together. Will this confuse the media and the public. As UN use only “International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons” for this year and the coming years and this will be in the UN documents, governments, and media.
Is it better to use only “International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons” in our activities?
I was also looking to see the background materials long time ago as 2 days are not enough to approach the media and the public. May be the media release can be only 2-3 days but not the background materials.
All the best
Ghassan Shahrour
ICAN COSTA RICA
Dear friends,
Dear all,
(September 23, 2014) — Nuclear Abolition Day is just around the corner (September 26). To help you promote your actions and maximize exposure of our demand to ban nuclear weapons, we have prepared some material for you to use and share.
In this NAD kit folder you will find some shareable postcards, the nuclear abolition day logos, and a Facebook cover.
We also have prepared a simple action for you to develop. We have created a Tumblr blog page where we are going to collect pictures of people supporting a ban on nuclear weapons. The picture can be made holding a sign (attached), or simply share a picture of your action or yourself.
Use Instagram with the hashtags either #goodbyenukes or #thecourageto to upload the picture directly on our Tumblr blog page or send your pictures to daniela@icanw.org Subject line: NUCLEAR ABOLITION DAY.
We will run this action until Vienna, so plenty of time to share it with your network and make the world listen to our call: the time to ban nuclear weapons has arrived!
As it is also the first International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, we are also encouraging people to send an email to Ban Ki Moon, cc Angela Kane and Valerie Amos, where we demand that the United Nations calls for a ban on nuclear weapons to be negotiated as soon as possible. On September 26 we are going to send this action to our newsletter, so stay tuned, participate in the action and share it with your network!
Attached you can find a PR template, modify or translate according to your national contexts. The PR is embargoed until September 26, 9.00 CET. Attached you can also find a Media Kit with key messages you can use in your media outreach activities.
We have produced a promo video that you can use to promote Vienna. Share it on social media!
ICAN Australia has produced one music video clip titled “(Don’t Want Your) Nuclear Umbrella”, which challenges nations to reject the doctrine of “extended nuclear deterrence” and support a treaty banning nuclear weapons. It’s an adaptation of Rihanna’s pop hit “Umbrella”, and features gas-masked ICAN campaigners carrying a four-metre-long nuclear bomb through the streets of Melbourne. View it here: http://www.icanw.org/nuclear-umbrella/ (it will be uploaded tomorrow, so stay tuned!).
All the best,
Daniela
ICAN AUSTRALIA
Dear everyone,
AUSTRALIA — All our bomb-carrying and umbrella-twirling has culminated in this music video adaptation of Rihanna’s “Umbrella.” We hope it gives you a chuckle and some inspiration for all of your efforts to ban (and bin!) the bomb.
(Don’t Want Your) Nuclear Umbrella
Please enjoy and share it far and wide! We launched it last night in Melbourne to much cheering and applause, followed by a more serious film and discussion about the US alliance.
This morning in Canberra ICAN and the United Nations Information Centre are hosting a booked-out event for the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, kicking off right now.
For a world without nuclear weapons,
Gem Romuld, Outreach Coordinator
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons — Australia
www.icanw.org.au
gem@icanw.org
0421 955 066
ICAN NEW ZEALAND
Greetings all,
AOTEAROA / NEW ZEALAND — A quick update from ICAN Aotearoa New Zealand — as it’s already the 26th here, today we’ve been providing information on both Nuclear Abolition Day 2014 and the first International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons (as well as the CTBTO event in Vienna marking 18 years since the CTBT opened for signature), including links to the ‘Show the world you have the courage to ban nuclear weapons’ campaign and information on how folk here can be involved, through our national lists.
There’s an event in Auckland on Sunday to mark both Days for which we have provided iCAN Aotearoa New Zealand resources and one of our banners.
Best wishes from here for all your events and activities — here’s hoping our collective efforts will get things moving to (finally) rid the world of nuclear weapons.
Edwina Hughes,
Coordinator, iCAN Aotearoa New Zealand
ICAN Aotearoa New Zealand c/o Peace Movement Aotearoa
the national networking peace organisation
PO Box 9314, Wellington 6141, Aotearoa New Zealand
Tel +64 4 382 8129, email icanz@xtra.co.nz http://www.icanw.org.nz
ICAN GERMANY
Hallo to you all,
GERMANY — Some of you might have already seen us around on Facebook and Twitter. We have been mega-busy working on several fronts for Nuclear Abolition Day.
1. Our action week for Don’t Bank on The Bomb (known as “Atomwaffen — ein Bombengeschäft” here) begins today. At the last count we have 21 actions in 15 cities! Look out for the photos over the next week.
2. Those who can’t take part in the offline actions can take part in our online action — #banks4bombs, take a look at our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Banks4Bombs
This great idea was thought up by the students taking part at the ICAN Action Academy.
3. And we decided at the last minute to join in the fun with #thecourageto and made ourselves a German sign.
4. Also, it seemed only right this year to celebrate the other impossible thing we achieved, so I made us a new Facebook cover with a picture I took here in Kreuzberg when the Wall came down.
Wishing you all a happy NAD,
Xanthe
xanthe@ippnw.de,
Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy
Dr Rebecca E. Johnson FRSA Executive Director, Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy 24 Colvestone Crescent, London E8 2LH United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0) 207 503 8857 mob: 07733360955 WEBSITE: www.acronym.org.uk CND Vice President ActionAWE co-founder International Steering Group, ICAN International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons International Panel on Fissile Materials
