Dear?Friend,

As the operations coordinator of ICAN, today I want to show you how we work to get governments to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

Let's take the example of the Caribbean states. The states in this region played key roles during the negotiations and the group of Caribbean states supported adopting the treaty at the United Nations on 7 July 2017.?

However, the final decision to sign and ratify of the Treaty is taken back at national level, by foreign ministers, parliamentarians, ministries of justice, and other domestic actors. And while these actors support the Treaty, they're often very busy with a long list of other domestic issues that needs?prioritization.

So to ensure that the relevant authorizations of the Treaty gets processed quickly, ICAN works with our local partners to organise meetings and events that specifically targets these actors.? ?

One way to do this is by organising on a regional level.

In June 2019, we brought together representatives from ten of the 15 CARICOM states, national disarmament experts, legal advisors, representatives from Caribbean Red Cross and civil society actors for a meeting on the TPNW.?

We discussed signature and ratification processes, implementation issues, and the regional support for the work.?The event concluded with the adoption of a declaration that highlighted the Caribbean support for the treaty, and the governments agreed to work towards signature and ratification.

The results came immediately. Within three months after the meeting concluded, 6 Caribbean governments either signed or ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. And several others have indicated that they will do so in the coming year.?

And here's where you come in.

We need to raise $25,000 to plan a similar meeting in the African region in 2020.?If we can get these kind of results in the Caribbean region, imagine what we can accomplish in Africa where all 54 governments have said they support the treaty, but 29 of them have not yet signed it.

A regional meeting in Africa could be what secures the 16 additional ratifications we need for the Treaty to become international law in 2020.?

We've already raised over $18,000, so I'm asking you?to make a contribution today so we can reach our goal of $25,000 before the end of the year.

Each contribution matters and will help us go ahead and start planning this event immediately. Will you help us make nuclear weapons illegal in 2020??

Thank you for being part of our journey towards a world free of nuclear weapons!?

Celine Nahory
Operations Coordinator
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons?
Nobel Peace Prize 2017