As the United Nations marks UN Disarmament Week (October 24-30), the urgency to ban and eliminate nuclear weapons from our world is greater now than during the Cold War. [Vigil: November 2022]
In February, Russia invaded Ukraine and overtly threatened to use nuclear weapons. This escalation follows several years of US, Russian and North Korean ‘sabre rattling’ with nuclear threats, trashing agreements, and testing new types of missiles, while the UK Government joined in by deciding in 2021 to build 40% more nuclear weapons and backtrack on disarmament agreements.
Some 12,000 Russian and NATO nuclear weapons surround Ukraine. Around 900 on each side are on prompt (hair trigger) alert’. The growing capabilities of state and non-state actors in cyber, nano and AI (artificial intelligence) capabilities combine with miscalculations and mistakes by nuclear weapon possessors to make nuclear use and war more likely and devastating than for many decades.
To turn the doomsday clock back before it is too late, we must ACT NOW! We have the legal and practical tools to prevent nuclear war, but we have to act with great urgency and build peace-building alliances with as many countries and peoples as we can. The best tool we now have is the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which finally entered into international legal force in January 2021. With 68 states parties and 91 signatories already, this UN Treaty bans the use, development, testing, deployment, possession and transfer of nuclear weapons. It requires the total elimination of all arsenals, and provides legal pathways for countries that currently possess and deploy nuclear weapons to end those policies and programmes safely and securely. The Treaty also enshrines the globally shared moral understanding that no-one has the right to possess or use such inhumane weapons, and prohibits assisting others to acquire, use or threaten to use these abhorrent weapons of mass annihilation.
To Britain’s shame, Boris Johnson’s Government failed to attend the TPNW meetings in Vienna in June 2022 and sought to undermine multilateral work to strengthen, verify and enforce the Treaty. By joining and strengthening the Treaty Prohibiting Nuclear Weapons, the UK would greatly increase national and global security. Taking this step would create much needed jobs in disarmament and verification, and enhance Britain’s influence in building peace and security. It would also free up resources to tackle urgent security threats such as climate destruction, violence against women and girls, and the deadly arms trade.
Today Women in Black invite you to tell the Prime Minister that Britain needs to take the lead in getting rid of nuclear weapons – for the sake of all humanity!
If war escalates to nuclear war, firing back would not save us. One UK ‘Trident’ submarine carries 40 nuclear warheads that would cause millions to die from blast, flash and radiation. Billions more would starve to death as radioactive dust clouds cause nuclear winter and starvation, as crops fail here and across the world.
To the Prime Minister, 10 Downing Street, London SW1.
Along with governments and citizens around the world, we urge you to:
– Sign the 2021 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on behalf of the UK, and implement this and all of Britain’s international disarmament obligations, including the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty.
– Halt UK nuclear patrols, dismantle existing weapons and cancel all leases for US Trident missiles.
– Immediately halt further expenditure on new nuclear warheads and submarines and focus on preventing the use of any nuclear weapons under any circumstances, anywhere in the world.
– Use the billions this will save for our real security needs: health, education, poverty reduction and tackling climate change and environmental destruction.
Signed……………………………………………………………………..Date…………………………….
Name: ……………………………………………………………………..
Address: …………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Women in Black hold vigils every Wednesday between 6-7 pm at the Edith Cavell Statue, opposite the door of the National Portrait Gallery, St.Martin’s Place, London, WC2. Our vigils are silent, women-only and if possible we wear black. See our website at www.london.womeninblack.org Contact us at: wibinfo@gn.apc.org
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