As the Doomsday Clock moves closer to midnight than ever before, nations meet in New York to work toward banning nuclear weapons, and arms control advocates urge Trump Administration to follow up on “denuclearization” comments.
The following is the text of a letter to Dr. Bonnie D. Jenkins, the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, delivered on June 15 by the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms.
With the Doomsday clock set to 90 seconds to midnight, and Russia suspending participation in a key nuclear arms control treaty, the risk of nuclear war is higher than ever.
Groups urge leaders to seek diplomatic solution to war, reject nuclear weapons, and support nonviolent resistance.
We condemn Mr. Putin’s threats, and implore you not to respond with nuclear weapons should he carry them out. We urge you to show great restraint, and to do everything in your power to deescalate the conflict, to seek dialogue with Russia, and take immediate, concrete steps toward nuclear disarmament.
There is no justification for the use of nuclear weapons. The sheer scale of their destructive capability would risk planetary annihilation and a humanitarian armageddon. A wide array of faith leaders and interfaith groups around the world have agreed that nuclear weapons are intrinsically immoral weapons that must never be used.
It is sobering to recall that in World War I the world’s major powers drifted and blundered into a war which none of them wanted and which was ruinous for all of them. Mr. President, for the sake of the entire human family, we urge you to press for the resumption of arms control negotiations without further delay.
Nuclear disarmament is the issue of the past and future of the Catholic peace movement.
Although a UN gathering to review a cornerstone nuclear treaty has again been postponed, five nuclear weapons states issued a statement expressing commitment toward preventing nuclear war.
This is an excerpt from our two-page policy brief on nuclear disarmament.
The following is a list of notable international developments toward nuclear disarmament in the past year.
The latest direct action against nuclear weapons by the Plowshares Movement occurred at a nuclear submarine base in Georgia on April 4, 2018.
Despite strong opposition from the nuclear weapon states to last year’s nuclear ban treaty, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and leaders of faith groups are pressing the countries to resume discussions on limiting and eventually eliminating nuclear weapons.
The 2018 Nuclear Posture Review by the United States signals a new arms race and increasing potential of the use of nuclear weapons. The following article was published in the March-April 2018 issue of NewsNotes. Last November, Pope Francis named the elimination nuclear weapons a “moral imperative.” Surrounded by some of the world’s leading thinkers on peace, including…
In November the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development hosted a special symposium on nuclear disarmament at the Vatican.
Under pressure from nuclear-armed nations that insist a world without nuclear weapons is not possible, a grassroots movement has achieved a UN nuclear ban treaty and a Nobel Peace Prize.
Maryknoll Sister Elizabeth Zwareva reports on the negotiations at the United Nations to adopt a treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading toward their total elimination.
In March, UN member states held the first round of controversial negotiations on a nuclear weapons ban. One month later, amid rising tensions between the U.S. and North Korea, the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns co-sponsored a conference on nuclear disarmament at the U.S. Capitol where leading voices for nuclear disarmament were heard.
