PEOPLE FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT

 WED 14 JUNE 2017
PEOPLE FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT
HUMAN SURVIVAL PROJECT

UN NUKE DISARMAMENT CAMPAIGNER URGES GOVT TO DROP BOYCOTT, BACK UN NUKE PROHIBITION CONVENTION NEGOTIATION


PND's UN nuclear disarmament campaigner John Hallam has joined many other campaigners from ICAN, MAPW, WILPF and other organizations in urging the Australian Government to drop its boycott of the negotiation for a prohibition of nuclear weapons that starts in New York at UN headquarters on Thursday 15th, and goes for the next 3 weeks. The negotiation, which takes place under a UN General Assembly resolution, and will involve over 130 governments, is all but certain to arrive at a text that will prohibit nuclear weapons, making them illegal for signatories. More importantly, the prohibition will strengthen a legal 'norm' that applies to all, signatories and non-signatories, according to which nuclear weapons have always been illegal because they cannot be used within the customary and written 'laws of war'.

Nuclear disarmament campaigners Australia-wide and worldwide will on Sat 17th June hold a Women's March To Ban the Bomb. In Sydney that will be 12-3pm, Macquarie St Parramatta. Similar marches will be held in most Australian cities, and worldwide including in NY, culminating in front of the UN.

Public support for a ban or prohibition on nuclear weapons is overwhelming. The Senate has passed a resolution in favor of a ban along with many legislatures worldwide. Yet some 40 countries, led by the nuclear weapons states are holding out against a ban, which they claim is 'unrealistic' and will somehow 'undermine' the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). The reality is that what is undermining the NPT is the failure of nuclear weapon states and their allies to eliminate their nuclear arsenals as required 'at an early date' by Article VI of the NPT. This failure has long placed the NPT in jeopardy, as non-nuclear-weapon states see that they have fulfilled their part of the NPT 'bargain' (not to obtain nuclear weapons), but that the nuclear weapon states have failed to fulfill their side of it (to eliminate their nuclear weapons.)

Indeed, the situation has now degenerated to such an extent that according to many authorities, ranging from the nobel – heavy Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to the former commanders of both US and Russian nuclear forces, the danger of a nuclear war that could, potentially, destroy civilization, and put human survival itself in question, is now as great or greater than it has ever been. This ought to be a terrifying fact and one that galvanizes both publics and governments to act to eliminate nuclear weapons as a matter of existential urgency.

We urge the Australian Government to join constructively and in good faith with the 130 other governments who see the merits of negotiating a legal instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, as the single most urgent short-term threat to the survival of civilization and humans as a species, and to cease giving comfort to those who really do undermine the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Contact: (details of womens march below)

John Hallam

0411-854-612
h61-2-9810-2598
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(Details of Womens March below)

Dear friends,


On June 15, more than 130 nations will continue negotiating a treaty to ban nuclear weapons at the United Nations. The treaty may be finalised by July 7. This negotiating conference has brought an end to two decades of paralysis in nuclear disarmament negotiations. 

Australia, shamefully, is standing with the Trump administration and boycotting the conference, despite overwhelming public support for a ban. A government official recently revealed that while Australia won't be in the negotiating room for this important treaty, they will be watching via the webcast.  

Saturday June 17 is a National Day of Action to Ban Nuclear Weapons with events happening in 8 cities. We are celebrating the ban treaty negotiations and protesting Australia's position. 

SYDNEY
Women's March to Ban the Bomb
Saturday 17th June at 12-3pm 
Jessie Street Centre at 2-12 Macquarie St
Parramatta
Led by women, inclusive of all!
Rally, march and BYO picnic

Featuring: Dr Helen Caldicott, Rosemary Lester (Yankunytjatjara-Anangu), Senator Lee Rhiannon, Asian Women at Work Drumming Group, Migrante Kultura and more TBA. 


More details here.

Facebook event here.



​

Organised by the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom NSW and ICAN Australia, in solidarity with the NYC Women's March to Ban the Bomb.


Parramatta is easily accessible by train. Bring your banners, friends, family and a picnic lunch for the end of the march.

Please spread this invitation far and wide. We hope to see you there to demand Australia stop taking orders from the nuclear weapons states and support a ban on these horrific weapons! 


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International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons- Australia
www.icanw.org/au
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0421 955 066