Friends,
As you know, we
celebrated on January 22 the first-ever treaty to ban nuclear weapons and have
asked Johns Hopkins University to renounce nuclear weapons research. Our
campaign is continuing, and we are asking concerned citizens to contact Ron
Daniels, the president, to end all of JHU’s contracts for nuclear weapons
research.
Prevent Nuclear
War/Maryland has been granted permission by Homewood Friends Meeting to install
a banner in its ground for one month which states Nuclear Weapons Are illegal.
Now we need help installing the banner. Are you available to help?
The banner will
be held up by two large stakes which have to be implanted in the ground. This
will require a bit of muscle. Thanks again are extended to the Homewood Friends
Meeting for this wonderful commitment. But at this time, we need help to
install the banner. Let me know if you are available to help get the
banner installed.
Kagiso, Max
First-ever treaty to ban
nuclear weapons enters into force
Participants
deflate balloons in hope of neutralizing and demolishing nuclear warheads,
during a memorial gathering at Peace Park in Nagasaki, southern Japan Friday,
Jan. 22, 2021. The first-ever treaty to ban nuclear weapons entered into force
on Friday, hailed as a historic step to rid the world of its deadliest weapons
but strongly opposed by the world’s nuclear-armed nations. (Kyodo News via AP)
(Associated Press)
By Edith M.
Lederer | AP
Jan. 22, 2021 at 2:43
a.m. EST
UNITED NATIONS — The
first-ever treaty to ban nuclear weapons entered into force on Friday, hailed
as a historic step to rid the world of its deadliest weapons but strongly
opposed by the world’s nuclear-armed nations.
The Treaty on the
Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is now part of international law, culminating a
decades-long campaign aimed at preventing a repetition of the U.S. atomic
bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II. But getting all
nations to ratify the treaty requiring them to never own such weapons seems
daunting, if not impossible, in the current global climate.
When the treaty was
approved by the U.N. General Assembly in July 2017, more than 120 approved it.
But none of the nine countries known or believed to possess nuclear weapons —
the United States, Russia, Britain, China, France, India, Pakistan, North Korea
and Israel — supported it and neither did the 30-nation NATO alliance.
Japan, the world’s only
country to suffer nuclear attacks, also does not support the treaty, even
though the aged survivors of the bombings in 1945 strongly push for it to do
so. Japan on its own renounces use and possession of nuclear weapons, but the
government has said pursuing a treaty ban is not realistic with nuclear and
non-nuclear states so sharply divided over it.
Nonetheless, Beatrice
Fihn, executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear
Weapons, the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize-winning coalition whose work helped
spearhead the treaty, called it “a really big day for international law, for the
United Nations and for survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”
The treaty received its
50th ratification on Oct. 24, triggering a 90-day period before its entry into
force on Jan. 22.
As of
Thursday, Fihn told The Associated Press that 61 countries had ratified the
treaty, with another ratification possible on Friday, and “from Friday, nuclear
weapons will be banned by international law” in all those countries. The
treaty requires that all ratifying countries “never under any circumstances ...
develop, test, produce, manufacture, otherwise acquire, possess or stockpile
nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices.” It also bans any transfer
or use of nuclear weapons or nuclear explosive devices — and the threat to use
such weapons — and requires parties to promote the treaty to other countries.
Fihn said the
treaty is “really, really significant” because it will now be a key legal
instrument, along with the Geneva Conventions on conduct toward civilians and
soldiers during war and the conventions banning chemical and biological weapons
and land mines.
U.N. Secretary-General
Antonio Guterres said the treaty demonstrated support for multilateral
approaches to nuclear disarmament.
“Nuclear weapons pose
growing dangers and the world needs urgent action to ensure their elimination
and prevent the catastrophic human and environmental consequences any use would
cause,” he said in a video message. “The elimination of nuclear weapons remains
the highest disarmament priority of the United Nations.”
But not for the nuclear
powers.
As the treaty
was approaching the 50 ratifications needed to trigger its entry into force,
the Trump administration wrote a letter to countries that signed it saying they
made “a strategic error” and urging them to rescind their ratification.
The letter said the treaty
“turns back the clock on verification and disarmament” and would endanger the
half-century-old Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, considered the cornerstone of
nonproliferation efforts.
Fihn countered at the time
that a ban could not undermine nonproliferation since it was “the end goal of
the Nonproliferation Treaty.”
Daryl Kimball, executive
director of the Arms Control Association, said the treaty’s arrival was a
historic step forward in efforts to free the world of nuclear weapons and
“hopefully will compel renewed action by nuclear-weapon states to fulfill their
commitment to the complete elimination of nuclear weapons.”
Fihn said in an
interview that the campaign sees strong public support for the treaty in NATO
countries and growing political pressure, citing Belgium and Spain. “We will
not stop until we get everyone on board,” she said. It will also be campaigning
for divestment — pressuring financial institutions to stop giving capital to
between 30 and 40 companies involved in nuclear weapons and missile production
including Airbus, Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
Copyright 2021 The
Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Donations can be sent to Max Obuszewski, Baltimore
Nonviolence Center, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Apt. 206, Baltimore, MD 21212. 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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