Dear Friend,

“We cannot abide by policies in which one - or nine - countries are allowed to hold the rest of the world hostage through weapons of mass destruction, because the use of those weapons knows no borders. A conflict involving nuclear weapons thousands of miles from this conference room will still cause chaos and catastrophe to all of us, our families, and our future.”

Today, Pax Christi Vlaanderen's Naomi Zoka delivered ICAN’s statement to diplomats from around the world, gathered in Geneva for the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) Preparatory Committee. In our statement, Naomi challenged the nuclear-armed states and their allies for their dangerous escalation of the nuclear arms race, in particular the reckless practice of nuclear sharing and nuclear deterrence (both of which her country, Belgium, participates in).

More than fifty years after the NPT entered into force, there remain more than 12,000 nuclear weapons in the world, many ready to be used within minutes. The risks of their use are higher than at any other time since the end of the Cold War. Yet, in spaces such as the NPT, the nuclear-armed and nuclear-endorsing states continue to dodge responsibility and point fingers at each other about whose nuclear arsenal is the problem.  

But there is a path forward: the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). As TPNW states parties told the NPT in their joint statement to the conference yesterday, “prohibition is a fundamental step towards the irreversible, verifiable, and transparent elimination of nuclear weapons needed for achieving and maintaining a world free of nuclear weapons.”

ICAN’s statement today built upon that message, urging more states to join the TPNW and reminding them that the only way to end the risk of nuclear weapons use is to eliminate them altogether, and that the time to act is now. 

We hope you will support that message by sharing our statement far and wide:

Thank you.

Seth Shelden
General Counsel and United Nations Liaison
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)