Nuclear weapons abolition is back on the radar
By Dr Bill Williams, GP in rural Victoria and the Vice
President of the Medical Association of the Prevention of War
Published: April
28, 2009 in onlineopinion.com.au,
Australia's e-journal of social and political debate
The
7th IPPNW North and South Asia Joint Regional Conference
Hiroshima Declaration
August 22-23, 2009
U.S. President Barack Obama stated in Prague this
April that "the United States would take concrete steps towards a world without
nuclear weapons". Since then, global attention and hopes have been enhanced
for the abolition of nuclear weapons. At this very opportune point in time, IPPNW
has held the IPPNW North and South Asia Joint Regional Conference here in Hiroshima?the
city devastated 64 years ago by an atomic bomb for the first time in the history
of the world?and has reconfirmed the belief that the abolition of nuclear weapons
is absolutely necessary to protecting the human health and global environment.
In order to realize a world without nuclear weapons, a comprehensive legal
framework based on a viable verification system in the form of a "Nuclear
Weapons Convention" is needed. We strongly support international treaties
concerning nuclear disarmament: above all, Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT),
Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty
(FMCT), and other bilateral or multilateral nuclear weapon reduction treaties.
We consider these treaties necessary for materializing a "world without nuclear
weapons", as well as for controlling nuclear weapons possessed by the nuclear
weapon states pending the abolition thereof. We in IPPNW have been calling for
the abolition of nuclear weapons through dialogues with decision makers, as well
as in collaboration with other like-minded NGOs. We strongly support the "Hiroshima-Nagasaki
Protocol" proposed by the Mayors for Peace. We also request the International
Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND) to include specific
proposals for time-frame and concrete measures for the ultimate nuclear abolition
in its recommendation to be submitted by the end of this year.
Pending the
realization of a world without nuclear weapons, nuclear weapon-free zone treaties
are useful for paving the way to peaceful coexistence through dialogue. With regard
to Northeast Asia, a realistic concept has already been proposed for the regional
treaty establishing such zone. Recent DPRK's nuclear tests have dampened the regional
atmosphere, but hopefully the framework of six-party talks still remains. We strongly
urge regional governments to take positive steps for an early realization of a
Northeast Asia nuclear weapon-free zone. We would welcome similar steps to be
taken by regional governments in South Asia.
In light of the increasing number of nuclear power plants and facilities across the world aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emission, we demand the safety of human health and the protection of environment, the prevention of the spread of nuclear fissile materials and sensitive technology, and the application of safeguards to avoid military diversion. Above all, adequate framework and technology need to be developed to stop the production of weapons-grade fissile material by way of enrichment and reprocessing of nuclear fuels.
The way to the abolition of nuclear weapons will not be just given, but we have to make efforts and seize it. President Obama's visit to Hiroshima is the new first step to the abolition of nuclear weapons.
We
are standing at a crossroad ?a path toward either the abolition of nuclear weapons
or otherwise the infinite proliferation of nuclear weapons. We call on all people
and governments in the world to join forces for the abolition of nuclear weapons.