The International Campaign to Abolition Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), working for a treaty to ban nuclear weapons – just as chemical and biological weapons have been banned – has been selected for review as a potential contender for the next Nobel Peace Prize awards, as has Abolition 2000. There is a lot of cross-membership in these two valiant organisations.
To quote Alice Slater: “ICAN has been driving the extraordinary civil society participation in this promising international initiative to change the conversation about nuclear weapons to a global discussion of the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear war, initiated by the International Red Cross and picked up by Norway, Mexico and Austria who hosted international meetings with ICAN and others in Oslo, Nayarit, Mexico, and Vienna where Austria issued a pledge this December to “fill the legal gap” needed to ban and eliminate nuclear weapons. This is the most compelling next step for all of us to support—getting our governments to sign on to the Austrian pledge.”
Alice Slater also recommended reading Ray Acheson of WILPf’s Reaching Critical Will recent article on the significance of this campaign and the Austrian pledge, see: http://www.ipsnews.net/2015/03/opinion-a-legally-binding-treaty-to-prohibit-nuclear-weapons/
This is an initiative that many Abolition 2000 member organizations are supporting.
Alice Slater continues: “Unless this NPT amazes us and makes a commitment at this 2015 Review Conference to begin negotiations on a treaty for the total elimination of nuclear weapons in a reasonable timeframe, then the ban treaty is the best prospect for breaking the logjam. It will enable us to at least get all the hypocritical nuclear “umbrella” states to take a stand for banning the bomb, shaking up their alliances with the recalcitrant nuclear weapons states who are even now refurbishing and replenish their arsenals, with the US planning to spend one trillion dollars over the next 30 years for new weapons, bomb factories and delivery systems by land, sea, and air.”
