Nuclear Ban Treaty

Understanding the code words of diplomacy. Those of you who attempted to follow the discussion in real-time over the last two weeks at the Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) at the United Nations in Geneva may have been non-plussed at the…

Our friends at wildfire>_, always a source of frank opinions and witty commentary, besides their brutal analysis of hypocritical statements, made this final statement to the Open Ended Working Group May session.  We reproduce it here for the benefit of…

The new UN working group on nuclear disarmament, the Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG), completed its second and most substantive session in Geneva today. 100 governments participated over the course of two weeks at the United Nations and many more contributed…

At the May session of the UN working group in Geneva, a small number of nations extolled the supposed “security value” of nuclear weapons and spoke out against a ban. ICAN protested at the diplomatic missions of some of these…

Addressing the open-ended working group (OEWG) on nuclear disarmament, Dr. Nick Ritchie of the University of York thoughtfully and systematically dismantled any supposed justification for the retention of nuclear weapons. In so doing, he also providing a searing critique of…

The US president’s press secretary today confirmed what many observers had been speculating for several weeks now, that Barack Obama will be the first serving US president to visit the site of one of the nastiest scars on humanity’s conscience:…

The second week of the open-ended working group on nuclear disarmament (OEWG) is illuminating a clear delineation between those who want to abolish nuclear weapons and those who don’t. Mexico’s Ambassador Lomonaco challenged Japan and other nuclear-supportive states over their…

Back in October 2015, the UN General Assembly authorised the formation of a working group to study legal measures for nuclear disarmament.  Work started in February and the group has convened again in the first two weeks of May before…

Wrapping up the first week of the open-ended working group (OEWG) on nuclear disarmament with a focus on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons, Wednesday’s OEWG meeting provided a chance for participants to articulate their concerns with the continued existence…

Back in February, the UN General Assembly authorised the formation of a working group to study legal measures for nuclear disarmament.  This week and next week the group convenes again before finishing its work in August.  The International Campaign to…