Disarm Now!

Mobilizing Call of the NPT Review 2010 International Planning Group – for Nuclear Abolition, Peace and Justice

Today our world is facing crises on an unprecedented scale – global warming, poverty, war, hunger, and disease. They threaten the very future of life as we know it, and on a daily basis bring death, sorrow and suffering to the majority of people on our planet. Yet these problems are almost entirely the results of human action, and they can equally be resolved by human action. We have an unprecedented opportunity to create the political will to manage the riches and natural bounty of our world in such a way as to meet the needs of all peoples, and to enable us to live together in peace and justice.

Such is the desire of the overwhelming majority of peoples, yet we face a situation today where global military spending – money for killing – has now reached a total of $1.46 trillion in 2008. Furthermore, nine countries maintain arsenals of nuclear weapons – all together, over 23,000 warheads. These uniquely destructive weapons can not only destroy life on our planet many times over, but also they are used as political weapons of terror, reinforcing an unjustifiable global inequality. The eradication of these weapons will not only end the threat of global annihilation and this hierarchy of terror, but it will unlock enormous resources to address climate change and mass poverty, serve as the leading edge of the global trend towards demilitarisation, and make advances in other areas of human aspiration possible.

In spite of treaty obligations and international resolutions and rulings over the decades since the criminal atomic bombings of Japan by the United States in 1945, the nuclear weapons states have failed to eliminate their nuclear arms. Their continued possession of these weapons, together with modernisation of systems and increasingly aggressive nuclear use policies in recent years, have contributed to an increasing tendency towards their proliferation – and a greater likelihood of nuclear war.

The nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) requires both non-proliferation and disarmament, and must be supported and strengthened - yet it lacks a concrete process for achieving these essential goals. Furthermore, there are grave problems with its Article IV. This guarantees the right to peaceful nuclear energy but overlooks the inextricable link between nuclear power and weapons technologies and their health and environmental costs. The newly-launched International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) provides an opportunity to phase out nuclear power, superseding the Article IV guarantee. This said, the NPT continues to provide the framework for advancing towards an essential new initiative – a timetable for the elimination of nuclear weapons so urgently sought by the global majority.

The NPT Review Conference in May 2010 presents a precious opportunity to take that initiative. It is an opportunity that must on no account be missed. After the spiralling aggression of the Bush era, the Obama presidency provides a new context for our campaigning. President Obama’s commitment – alongside that of President Medvedev of Russia – to global abolition of nuclear weapons is greatly welcomed, and their first steps towards bilateral reductions and support for treaties restricting nuclear developments are positive. However, the goal of global abolition cannot be postponed into the indefinite future, for only a defined, achievable and timetabled process can halt the proliferation that threatens us all.

To this end, to secure a future for humanity and our planet, to help create the conditions for a world of peace, justice and genuine human security, we urge the 2010 NPT Review Conference to make an unambiguous commitment to begin negotiations on a convention for the time-bound elimination of all nuclear weapons – a Nuclear Weapons Convention.

Such a step will not happen without the active encouragement of civil society, giving voice to the yearning of the global majority for a world free from the fear of nuclear annihilation. We urge all those who share this vision to join us in mobilising for the international peace conference in New York on May 1st and the International Day of Action for a Nuclear Free World, in New York and globally, on May 2nd, as well as for the presentation of petition signatures to the United Nations.

Send endorsements to: npt@ialana.de and JGerson@afsc.org

Endorsers as of December 14th 2009

International Organizations

· Abolition 2000 Global Council

· European Feminist Initiative

· Food Not Bombs

· Global Family

· Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space

· International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms, Europe

· International Association of Peace Messenger Cities

· International Network of Engineers and Scientists for Global Responsibility

· International Peace Bureau

· Mayors for Peace

· Partnership for Global Justice

· Pax Christi International

· Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom

National Organizations

· Abolition 2000, Belgium

· Abolition of Nuclear Energy, Germany

· Abolition of Nuclear Weapons/Stop essais, France

· Action des Citoyens pour le Désarmement Nucléaire, France

· Afghanistan Socialist Association (ASA), Afghanistan

· American Friends Service Committee, USA

· Artsen voor Vrede, Belgium

· Association of World Citizens, USA

· Berkeley Fellowship Unitarian Universalists Social Justice Committee, USA

· Boundary Peace Initiative, Canada

· Bundesausschuss Friedensratschlag / Federal Committee Peace Counsel, Germany

· Cambridge United for Justice with Peace, USA

· Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, GB

· Canadian Voice of Women for Peace, Canada

· Center for Encounters and Active Non-Violence, Austria

· Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center, Japan

· Coalition for Peace Action & Peace Action Education Fund, USA

· CODEPINK Women for Peace, USA

· Committee for Communal Amity, India

· Deutsche Friedensgesellschaft – Vereinigte KriegsdienstgegnerInnen, Germany

· Disarmament & Security Centre, New Zealand

· DRUM- Desis Rising Up & Moving, USA

· Emil Touma Institute for Palestinian and Israeli Studies, Israel

· Fellowship of Reconciliation, USA

· Frauen für Frieden, Germany

· Friends Committee on National Legislation, USA

· Gensuikyo, Japan

· German Peace Council, Germany

· Global Peace and Justice Coalition of Turkey, Turkey

· Grandmothers Against the War, USA

· Granny Peace Brigade, USA

· Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, USA

· Green Party of the U.S., USA

· Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, USA

· Hiroshima/Nagasaki Commemoration Committee, USA

· Informationsstelle für Friedensarbeit - Information Bureau for Peace Work, Germany

· Initiativkreis gegen die Atomwaffen, Germany

· International Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms, German Section

· International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, German Section

· International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, USA

· Internationaler Versohnungsbund – Dt. Sektion, Germany

· IPPNW Germany

· Japan Confederation of A- and H-bombs Sufferers’ Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo), Japan

· Japan Council of Religionists for Peace, Japan

· Japan Federation of Democratic Medical Institutions (Min-iren), Japan

· Jonah House, USA

· Komitee für Grundrechte und Demokratie, Germany

· Kooperation für den Frieden, Germany

· Latin American Circle for International Studies, Mexico

· Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, USA

· Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives, USA

· Links Ecologisch Forum, Belgium

· Los Alamos Study Group, USA

· Maison de Vigilance, France

· Malcolm X Center for Self-Determination, USA

· Maryland United for Peace and Justice, Inc., USA

· MIR – IRG / IFOR – WRI, Belgium

· Movement de la Paix, France

· N.J. Hiroshima/Nagasaki Remembrance Committee, USA

· Nashville Peace Coalition, USA

· National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee, USA

· Naturwissenschaftlerinitiative Verantwortung für Frieden und Zukunftsfähigkeit, Germany

· New Japan Women’s Association (Shin-fujin), Japan

· New York Metro Progressives, USA

· No Nukes No War CT, USA

· North Suburban Peace Initiative, USA

· Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, USA

· Nuclear Information and Resource Service, USA

· Nuclear Resister, USA

· Ohne Rüstung Leben, ökumenische Aktion für Frieden und Gerechtigkeit, Germany

· Parti communiste français, France

· Pax Christi Metro DC and Baltimore, USA

· Pax Christi Metro New York, USA

· Pax Christi USA, USA

· Peace & Neutrality Alliance, Ireland

· Peace Action, USA

· Peace Committee of Georgia, Georgia

· Peace Garden Project, USA

· Peace Union of Finland, Finland

· Peace Women Partners Asia-Pacific, Philippines

· PeaceMajority Report, USA

· PEACEWORKERS, USA

· People for Nuclear Disarmament Nuclear Flashpoints Project, Australia

· People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy, India

· People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, Republic of Korea

· Pro Peaceful Energy Use, Netherlands

· Progressive Democrats of America, USA

· Progressive Democrats of NY, CD14, USA

· Proposition One Committee, USA

· Quakers International, French Section

· Réseau Sortir du Nucléaire, France

· Science for Peace, Canada

· September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, USA

· Sisters of St. Joseph-Baden, USA

· Solidarity for Peace and Reunification of Korea, South Korea

· Spanish Society for International Human Rights Law, Spain

· STOP the War Coalition, Philippine Section

· Stop Uranium Weapons, Belgium

· Sussex Peace Alliance, GB

· Swedish Nurses Against Nuclear Weapons, Sweden

· Swedish Peace Committee, Sweden

· Swedish Peace Council, Sweden

· Swedish Physicians Against Nuclear Weapons, Sweden

· Technology for Life, Finland

· The Buddhist monks of the Nipponzan Myohoji Dojo of Bainbridge Island, USA

· The Coalition for a Middle East Free of Nuclear Weapons, Israel

· The Colorado Coalition, USA

· The Hiroshima/Nagasaki Remembrance Committee, USA

· The Institute for Law Accountability and Peace, UK

· The Simons Foundation, Canada

· Trident Information Network, USA

· U.S. Citizens for Peace & Justice - Rome, Italy

· U.S. Peace Council, USA

· United for Peace and Justice, USA

· VREDE vzw, Belgium

· Vredesactie - Bomspotting, Belgium

· Vredeshuis Aalst, Belgium

· WAR & PEACE Foundation, USA

· We are wide awake, USA

· West Midlands Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, UK

· Western States Legal Foundation, USA

· Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, USA

· Women for Peace, Finland

· World Court Project, UK Section

· Wuerselener Initiative fuer den Frieden, Germany

· ZENROREN, National Confederation of Trade Unions, Japan