Peace Action NYS and Manhattan Project for a Nuclear-Free World present
January 22, 2024, Monday, 10:45AM to 1 PM
Near the U.N. in front of the Isaiah Wall (43rd Street and First Avenue)
and the U.S. Mission to the U.N.
On January 22, 2024, the world celebrates the third anniversary of the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). This Treaty entered into force three years ago and established a categorical ban on nuclear weapons under international law. Events around the globe and across the United States will honor this anniversary.
New Yorkers will gather at the Isaiah Wall across from the United Nations Headquarters in Manhattan, at First Avenue and 43rd Street. From the Isaiah Wall, participants will walk to the United States Mission to the United Nations two blocks north. There they will entreat the U.S. to support the TPNW. Nuclear weapons were first developed, tested and used by the United States. Because of the steadfast witness and advocacy of hibakusha or the survivors of the first use of the atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a movement led by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) was sparked that led the United Nations to negotiate the TPNW.
This month, the number of state parties to the TPNW reached 70 when São Tomé and Príncipe, an island country off the western equatorial coast of Central Africa, submitted their ratification documents to the United Nations. As of today, close to half of the world’s states are either parties or signatories to the treaty. Although support for the TPNW has grown, the United States has still not signed or ratified the treaty.
The day after the anniversary of the TPNW, on January 23rd at 10 am ET, the Atomic Bulletin’s Science and Security board will announce the setting of the Doomsday Clock. The Doomsday Clock is used to assess the threats facing the planet, including the threat of nuclear weapons. On January 24, 2023, the Clock was moved to 90 seconds (1 minute, 30 seconds). By expanding the state parties to the TPNW, the dangers the world faces from use of nuclear weapons could be lessened significantly.
The celebration of the TPNW’s anniversary comes one week after civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. His words reflect the hopes of those supporting the Treaty: “Somehow we must transform the dynamics of the world power struggle from the negative nuclear arms race which no one can win to a positive contest to harness man’s creative genius for the purpose of making peace and prosperity a reality for all of the nations of the world.”
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Peace Action New York State (PANYS) is the New York affiliate of national Peace Action, along with Peace Action Fund of New York State (PAFNYS). Founded in 1957, national Peace Action (formerly SANE/Freeze), the United States’ largest grassroots peace and disarmament organization, with over 100,000 paid members and nearly 100 chapters in 36 states, works to abolish nuclear weapons, promote government spending priorities that support human needs, encourage real security through international cooperation and human rights and support nonmilitary solutions to international conflicts.For more information about PANYS/PAFNYS, go towww.panys.org or email info@panys.org.
Manhattan Project for a Nuclear Free World is a group of concerned citizens, educators, health advocates, artists and lawyers with a mission to raise awareness of the costs, risks, and humanitarian consequences of nuclear energy and nuclear weapons. They organize educational events, publish informative material, and support campaigns and projects aimed toward eliminating all nuclear power and nuclear weapons through education and arts. In addition, they reach out to policy makers to advocate the importance of implementing carbon-free, nuclear-free policies in order to protect the most vulnerable groups in our society.
