Anti-Nuclear Coalition Accepts Nobel Peace Prize As Calls for Disarmament Grow
Sunday, December 10, 2017
"The only rational course of action is to cease living under the conditions where our mutual destruction is only one impulsive tantrum away."
Pope Francis made a renewed appeal for nuclear disarmament on Sunday, addressing a crowd at the Vatican's St. Peter's Square as the Nobel Committee was awarding one of the world's foremost anti-nuclear groups with the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo.
The Pope spoke out about "the strong link between human rights and nuclear disarmament," arguing that any group concerned with disadvantaged populations must be "also working with determination to build a world without nuclear arms."
The pontiff has made clear his strong views on eliminating nuclear arsenals from world governments, speaking several times on the issue this year. Last month, he hosted a symposium at the Vatican entitled "Prospects for a World Free from Nuclear Weapons," which was attended by United Nations representatives, Nobel Peace laureates, and officials from nuclear powers including the United States, Russia, and South Korea.
As he spoke in Vatican City, the Nobel Committee was holding its annual Nobel Prize awards ceremony, at which the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) was awarded the year's Nobel Peace Prize.
Accepting the award, Beatrice Fihn, the head of the global coalition, made her own urgent call for nuclear disarmament.
"The only rational course of action is to cease living under the conditions where our mutual destruction is only one impulsive tantrum away," Fihn said, appearing to allude to recent heightened tensions between the U.S. and North Korea.
Nuclear weapons, she added, "are a madman’s gun held permanently to our temple."
Since February, North Korea has tested 23 missiles, claiming to have gained the ability to fire a nuclear weapon that could reach the U.S. mainland. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un have exchanged increasingly aggressive insults as Americans have reported low levels of confidence in Trump's ability to safely manage the situation.
“Will it be the end of nuclear weapons, or will it be the end of us?" said Fihn in her acceptance speech.
In its efforts to rid the world of the nuclear threat, ICAN worked to advance of a U.N. treaty banning such weapons. The treaty has been signed by 122 countries—but none of the world's nine nuclear powers have supported it.
Despite the obstacles that still exist for ICAN and other groups that are working to eliminate nuclear arsenals, Fihn noted in her speech that the treaty's support by more than 100 countries signifies that "at long last, we have an unequivocal norm against nuclear weapons."
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Sunday, December 10, 2017
The 2017 Nobel Peace Prize to ICAN: Saving Humanity from Itself
The Nobel Committee has joined people all over the world in calling on the nuclear armed states to begin the serious negotiations toward the complete elimination of these weapons
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), headed by Beatrice Fihn (right), was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Sunday (Photo: ICAN/Flickr/cc)
Since the beginning of the nuclear age and the dropping of the first atomic bombs, mankind has struggled with the reality of being able to destroy the planet on the one hand and the abolition of these weapons on the other. This year’s Nobel Peace Prize to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear (ICAN) acknowledges these realities and celebrates the efforts to achieve the latter. From the beginning of the nuclear age after the inception of the Nobel Peace Prize with its award criteria specifying: the promotion of fraternity between nations, the advancement of disarmament and arms control and the holding and promotion of peace congresses, to the founding of the United Nations, 71 years ago, with its very first resolution, advocating for the importance of nuclear disarmament and a nuclear weapon-free world, nuclear abolition has been the necessary goal for our survival. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) exemplifies these ideals and brings hope to our world.
In a world armed with approximately 15,000 nuclear weapons, everything that we cherish and value is threatened every moment of every day. From a limited nuclear war to all out nuclear war between “superpowers” our future is hanging in the balance. Whether by intent, miscalculation or accident, never before has the world been closer to nuclear war. From the setting of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists Doomsday Clock in January of this year to 2 ½ minutes till midnight, where midnight represents Armageddon from nuclear war and the relationship to climate change, to the dangerous rhetoric between our president and North Korea, China and Russia resulting in the worst relations between nuclear powers in decades, we face great peril. This year’s Nobel Peace Prize acknowledges the grave humanitarian consequences of nuclear war. A threat for which there is no adequate humanitarian or medical response and whose only solution is prevention through the total abolition of these weapons.
This is the path chosen by the majority of the nations of the world on July 7 when they voted 122-1 to adopt the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Unwilling to remain forever hostage to the arsenals of the nuclear armed states, these nations, with the strong support of civil society, called for the complete elimination of all nuclear weapons.
ICAN is a coalition of 468 non-governmental organizations from 101 countries around the globe. The coalition has been a driving force in prevailing upon the world's nations to pledge to cooperate with all relevant stakeholders in efforts to stigmatize, prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons. To date, 127 states have made such a commitment, known as the Humanitarian Pledge that ultimately led up to this year’s U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. This Treaty will ban nuclear weapons just as every other weapon of mass destruction has previously been banned. The Treaty opened for signature on September 21, the International Day of Peace. As soon as the Treaty has been ratified by 50 Nations, the ban on nuclear weapons will enter into force and will be binding under international law for all the countries that are party to the treaty.
Paradoxically, five of the states that currently have nuclear weapons – the USA, Russia, the United Kingdom, France and China – have already committed to the objective of abolishing nuclear weapons through their accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons of 1970. While the Non-Proliferation Treaty will remain the primary international legal instrument for promoting nuclear disarmament and preventing the further spread of such weapons, it has until this time lacked the legal status of declaring these weapons illegal. And therefore, following the lead of the United States, a new arms race costing in excess of $1.2 trillion dollars to the U.S. is under way.
This nuclear hypocrisy must stop. These expenditures rob future generations of the necessary resources required to address desperate human needs around the planet resulting in more conflict. We risk realizing Albert Einstein’s prophetic words: “With the unleashed power of the atom, we drift towards unparalleled catastrophe unless we change our mode of thinking”. Ultimately, we will see the end of nuclear weapons. Either through adherence to international law and their abolition or through their use and the end of humanity. The choice is ours.
The Nobel Committee has joined the peoples and nations of the world in calling on and demanding the nuclear armed states to begin the serious negotiations toward the complete elimination of these weapons. The time is now and this Nobel Peace Prize highlights these efforts and brings new hope and determination to this call. Each of us has a role to play in bringing forth this reality and must demand that our nation sign the Treaty and abolish nuclear weapons.
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Robert Dodge is a family physician practicing full time in Ventura, California. He is the president of Physicians for Social Responsibility Los Angeles serving as a Peace and Security Ambassador and at the national level he is co-chairman of Physicians for Social Responsibility National Security Committee. He also serves on the board of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and Citizens for Peaceful Resolutions. He writes for PeaceVoice.
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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