Global Nuclear Weapons Disarmament Day – 25 June 2011

From the ICAN (International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons) website-www.icanw.org
 
‘Nuclear Abolition Day is an annual global day of action for a treaty to outlaw and eliminate all nuclear weapons. It is coordinated by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. The date changes from year to year depending on significant events. The first global day of action was held on 5 June 2010 in response to the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, which had just concluded.
Why is this year’s day of action 25 June?

At last year’s Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, the five original nuclear weapon states – the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France and China – agreed to “accelerate concrete progress on ... steps leading to nuclear disarmament”. The leaders of these five nations will meet in Paris on 29 and 30 June to discuss nuclear security as a follow-up to the Review Conference. June 25 is our opportunity to send them, and all other governments, a loud and clear message: it is time to begin work on a treaty to outlaw and eliminate all nuclear weapons.

This year we will also focus on online actions to promote abolition, such as tweeting.’

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), Tasmania, the oldest women’s peace group in the world, organised a Vigil, on Saturday 25th June, from 11.30 a.m-1.30 p.m at Franklin Square, to raise awareness and support for global nuclear weapon disarmament. 10 women with some male supporters attended and held banners receiving puzzled looks (the issue is obviously not high on agendas!) but also appreciative comments from a number of people passing by and ‘honks’ from cars.

WILPF also repeat the call by Abolition 2000, a global network of individuals and organisations working for the abolition of nuclear weapons who have asked for

..a secure and liveable world for our children and grandchildren and all future generations.  (This) requires that we achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and redress environmental degradation and human suffering that is the legacy of (over) fifty years of nuclear weapons testing and production.  Further, the inextricable link between the “peaceful” and warlike uses of nuclear technologies and the threat to future generations inherent in creation and use of long-lived radioactive materials must be recognised.  We must move toward reliance on clean, safe, renewable forms of energy production that do not provide the materials for weapons of mass destruction and do not poison the environment for thousands of centuries.

• Download: Nuclear_Awareness_WILPF_2007.pdf