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By Andrew Lichterman*
OAKLAND, California (IDN) — Seventy-seven years ago, the United Nations General Assembly passed its first resolution. The subject the governments represented there thought important enough to be first on their agenda was the establishment of a commission to develop proposals for the control of atomic energy and “for the elimination from national armaments of atomic weapons and of all other major weapons adaptable to mass destruction.”
By Jaya Ramachandran
GENEVA (IDN) — UN Secretary-General António Guterres announced on 24 May 2018 his Agenda for Disarmament, which outlines a set of practical measures across the entire range of disarmament issues, including weapons of mass destruction, conventional arms and future weapon technologies.
Action 1 for "Securing Our Common Future," the title of the Agenda, aims to "facilitate dialogue for nuclear disarmament". It underlines that disarmament and non-proliferation remain indispensable tools for the creation of a secure environment favourable to human development, as enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations.
Viewpoint by Jacqueline Cabasso
The writer is the Executive Director of the Western States Legal Foundation.
OAKLAND, California (IDN) — The year 2022 has been a nightmare for nuclear disarmament. The year started out with a mildly reassuring Joint Statement by the five original nuclear-armed states, issued on January 3, 2022, declaring:
Viewpoint by Sergio Duarte
The writer is a former High Representative of the United Nations for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) and President of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.
NEW YORK (IDN) — 60 years after the Cuban missile crisis, the spectre of the imminent use of nuclear weapons once again haunts humankind. On that occasion, however, the crisis lasted for just 13 days until John Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev, in direct contact, arrived at the agreement that made possible the withdrawal of the Soviet weapons from the Caribbean Island in exchange for the non-stationing of American nuclear arms in Turkey.
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — A longstanding proposal for a nuclear-weapons-free-zone (NWFZ) in the politically and militarily volatile Middle East has been kicked around the corridors—and committee rooms—of the UN since the 1960s.
A joint declaration by Egypt and Iran in 1974 resulted in a General Assembly resolution. But it never reached the stage of political reality.
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — Amid growing nuclear threats from Russia and North Korea, the United Nations commemorated Disarmament Week beginning October 24, warning that weapons of mass destruction, in particular nuclear weapons, continue to be of primary concern, owing to their destructive power and the threat that they pose to humanity.
But so far, they have been either empty threats or sabre rattling—described as a flamboyant display of military power or aggressive blustering.
Viewpoint by Norman Solomon
SAN FRANCISO (IDN) — This is an emergency.
Right now, we’re closer to a cataclysmic nuclear war than at any other time since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. One assessment after another has said the current situation is even more dangerous.
Yet few members of Congress are advocating for any steps that the U.S. government could take to decrease the dangers of a nuclear conflagration. The silences and muted statements on Capitol Hill are evading the reality of what’s hanging in the balance—the destruction of almost all human life on Earth. “The end of civilization.”
![— 12 October 2022] Photo: US President Joe Biden boarding Marine One in New York on October 6 warned that the risk of nuclear “Armageddon” is at the highest level since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Credit: Andrew Harnik | AP. Source: Tampa Bay Times.](/images/biden-nuclear_armageddon.jpeg)
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power
LUND, Sweden (IDN) — We were standing in Hiroshima looking at a stonewall. All there was to see was a shadow of a man. It had been etched into the wall at the moment of his obliteration by the blinding light of the first atomic bomb. Olof Palme, prime minister of Sweden, stared hard at it. An hour later, he had to give a speech as head of the Independent Commission on Disarmament, of which I was a member. "My fear", he remarked, "is that mankind itself will end up as nothing more than a shadow on a wall."
By Thalif Deen*
UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — When the United Nations commemorated the annual International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons on September 26, the President of the General Assembly (GA) Csaba Kőrösi reminded delegates of the statue of Saint Agnes—"found in the ruins of Nagasaki, charred and mottled from the atomic blast"—and which now stands at the centre of UN’s permanent collection of memorable anti-nuclear artefacts in the Secretariat building.
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The Tenth Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which runs from August 1-26, takes place amidst a raging battle: a nuclear Russia vs a non-nuclear Ukraine and potential military conflicts on the horizon, including a nuclear China vs a non-nuclear Taiwan, a nuclear North Korea vs a non-nuclear South Korea and a nuclear Israel vs a non-nuclear Iran.
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