Nuclear disarmament has been a key component of Pax Christi’s work for decades. As part of our commitment on this issue, Pax Christi leaders from the international to the local level have endorsed a message to the leaders of the G7 nations (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK and the United States), meeting in Hiroshima from May 19-21, urging them to reaffirm the global norm against nuclear war and to help make this norm part of accepted international law.
This Declaration of Public Conscience, released in conjunction with the Summit by NoFirstUse Global, an international coalition of over 90 civil society organizations (including Pax Christi USA), has been endorsed by over 1,100 legislators, youth, academics/experts, religious leaders and civil society leaders from around the world. It refers specifically to the statement agreed by the leaders of the G20 counties in Bali last year that the “use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible,” and calls for this stance to be enshrined as a dictate of international law in order to rule-out any initiation of nuclear war and pave the way for the global abolition of nuclear weapons.
Use this link to read “Nuclear taboo: From norm to law. A declaration of public conscience.”
The Declaration also calls on the nuclear armed and allied states – which includes all members of the G7 – to implement this norm in their security policies, starting with the adoption of no-first-use commitments.
“During his historic 2019 visits to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Pope Francis condemned both the use and possession of nuclear weapons by any state. We join him in imploring world leaders to support international legal instruments of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation and to enshrine as international law that the use or threat of nuclear weapons is inadmissible. Peace will never be attained as long as we live under the shadow of total annihilation.” ~ Johnny Zokovitch, Executive Director, Pax Christi USA
“Hibakusha and citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki know the misery and inhumanity of the atomic bombs from our own experiences,” says Tadatoshi Akiba (Japan), former Mayor of Hiroshima. “That is why they, and we, have been strongly urging the disuse of nuclear weapons for the sake of human beings, and of this planet, in any circumstances.”
“If the 2023 G7 leaders — all of whom were at the 2022 G20 Summit — do not reiterate that the threat/use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible (or something even stronger), they will be saying, in effect, that threat/use is admissible. Music to Putin’s ears!” says Aaron Tovish (USA/Philippines), Member of the NoFirstUse Global Steering Committee. “The endorsers of the Declaration of Public Conscience know better: plunging the world into nuclear war — even threatening to do so — in unconscionable.”
“The meeting of the G7 in Hiroshima is the right and appropriate time for the participants outrightly to endorse this Declaration of Public Conscience,” says Commander Robert Forsyth (UK), a former nuclear submarine commander. “No responsible State should threaten, initiate or respond to a nuclear weapon exchange that would bring untold suffering – and possible large-scale extermination – to the peoples of this planet.“
“This is the moment to demand that no-first-use be made a binding mandate of international law by the UN Security Council and UN General Assembly and that every state that possesses nuclear weapons commit itself to no first use.” says Morton Halperin (USA), Senior Adviser to the Open Society Foundations and former Political Adviser to the Johnson, Nixon, Clinton and Obama administrations.
“We are on a highway to climate hell, but world leaders are accelerating towards nuclear apocalypse with equal speed. The time is now to put both feet on the break,” says Nico Edwards (UK/Sweden), Core Team Member of Youth Fusion, PhD Student in International Relations, University of Sussex and Advisor, Scientists for Global Responsibility. “World leaders must take today to recognise their responsibility towards people and planet, and choose nuclear disarmament and climate action over doomsday posturing and brinkmanship peacocking. Or else, there is no tomorrow for my generation nor those to come.”
“World leaders have an urgent and desperate obligation to avert the danger of nuclear Armageddon by committing themselves to a binding No-First-Use of nuclear weapons,” says Uta Zapf (Germany), Council Member of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament and former Chair of the German Parliament Subcommittee on Disarmament, Arms Control and Non-proliferation. “We ask NATO to take the lead in supporting this step. Not only Europe will suffer but all mankind is at stake. Don’t turn Doomsday Clock further!”
“The use or threat of use of nuclear weapons – weapons with brutal and catastrophic consequences for life on earth – cannot be reconciled with humanity, says Jutta Bertram Nothnagel (USA), Vice-President of Lawyers’ Committee on Nuclear Policy. “International law must not permit inhumanity. It must not remain silent about inhumanity. It must condemn inhumanity. With a voice loud and clear.”
”The Hiroshima appointment is a historic opportunity, offered by Japan, to re-launch the disarmament and non-proliferation of atomic weapons” says Carlo Trezza (Italy), Steering Committee Member of NoFirstUse Global, former Italian Ambassador for Disarmament and former Chairman of the UN Secretary General’s Advisory Board for Disarmament Affairs. “A glimmer of hope has been lit in recent weeks with the proposal by the “No First Use Global” group to promote the concept of the inadmissibility of the use and threat of use of nuclear weapons. World leaders are not allowed to return empty-handed from Hiroshima.”
“With nuclear weapons, humanity has given itself the ability to destroy itself,” says General Bernard Norlain (France), President of Initiatives pour le Désarmement Nucléaire and Former Air Combat Commander of the French Air Force. “Nuclear powers must make formal commitments and concrete actions to renounce nuclear use and threat. The nuclear powers have the survival of the planet in their hands. This overwhelming responsibility requires them neither to use nuclear weapons in any form whatsoever nor to raise the threat of them.”NoFirstUse Global also plans to submit the Declaration of Public Conscience to the Preparatory Meeting of States Parties to the Non-Proliferation Treaty in Vienna (August), G20 Summit in Delhi (September) and the UN General Assembly and Security Council in New York (October).
“During his historic 2019 visits to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Pope Francis condemned both the use and possession of nuclear weapons by any state. We join him in imploring world leaders to support international legal instruments of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation and to enshrine as international law that the use or threat of nuclear weapons is inadmissible. Peace will never be attained as long as we live under the shadow of total annihilation.” ~ Johnny Zokovitch, Executive Director, Pax Christi USA
Yes. However, if we really believe that ” both the use and possession of nuclear weapons by any state” is immoral, we should start disarming unilaterally.