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@2010@Nagasaki
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@ NAGASAKI
APPEAL 2010
We have gathered from around the world at
the Nagasaki Global Citizens' Assembly for the Elimination of
Nuclear Weapons for the fourth time to demonstrate our determination
that Nagasaki be the last place ever to suffer a nuclear attack.
At the first Assembly in 2000, we heard atomic bomb survivors
say, "We want to see nuclear weapons abolished in our lifetime."
Since then, ten years have passed without their wish being realized.
Hearing again the voices of survivors, we renew our resolve
to achieve a world without nuclear weapons. Their stories remind
us of the suffering of victims created at the every stage of
the nuclear cycle from uranium mining to weapons production
and testing.
With this in mind we must act on the opportunities provided
by:
- The five-point plan for nuclear disarmament proposed by
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on United Nations Day,
24 October 2008;
- The tidal-wave of hope inspired by US President Obama's
April 2009 speech in Prague, and the joint statement of
US President Obama and Russian President Medvedev in April
2009 pledging to work for nuclear stockpile reductions and
supporting the goal of a nuclear-weapons-free world;
- The change of government in Japan and the subsequent statements
by Prime Minister Hatoyama and Foreign Minister Okada calling
for sole-purpose nuclear doctrines, negative security assurances
and advocating for a regional nuclear weapon free zone;
- The announcement by German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle
recommending the removal of US nuclear weapons from the
territories of NATO states as a step in reducing the role
of nuclear weapons in NATO.
Nuclear weapons are the ultimate threat to life and the environment
and the most extreme violation of human rights. They are dangerous
in anyone's hands and any use would be a crime against humanity.
We call upon governments, in cooperation with civil society,
to launch the process of abolishing nuclear weapons in a visible
manner. To that end, the Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty (NPT), to be held in May 2010, provides a critical opportunity
to achieve this goal. Bearing this in mind, we advocate the
following actions:
- Establishment of a process, involving like-minded countries
and representatives of civil society, to undertake preparatory
work on a treaty to prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons.
Such a process should be organized with reference to the
five-point proposal for nuclear disarmament advanced by
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, which includes a call
on states to commence negotiation on a nuclear weapons convention
or package of agreements. The Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol,
launched by Mayors for Peace at the 2008 NPT Preparatory
Committee meeting in Geneva, also advocates such a process.
We call on the 2010 NPT Review Conference to agree to this.
- All states possessing nuclear arsenals should halt research,
development, testing, and component production while reductions
of arsenals are in progress, not afterwards, with production
and research facilities subject to an intrusive verification
regime at the earliest possible time. States should reduce
nuclear weapons in a manner that supports general disarmament,
and the financial and human resources currently used to
develop and maintain nuclear weapons systems should be redirected
towards meeting social and economic needs consistent with
the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.
- Increased citizen involvement in nuclear disarmament,
including through campaigns and activities of Mayors for
Peace, Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation and
Disarmament (PNND), Abolition 2000 Global Network, the International
Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and others. We
support nonviolent actions to oppose nuclear weapons, including
direct action at nuclear weapons facilities. We encourage
greater participation of youth in such campaigns and activities.
- Creation of more nuclear weapons free zones or zones
free of weapons of mass destruction, or single state nuclear
weapons free zones, in regions of the world including the
Middle East, Northeast Asia, Europe, South Asia and the
Arctic. Nuclear weapon free zones provide a practical means
for reducing the role of nuclear weapons in security doctrines
and decreasing the threat of nuclear weapons being used
in the regions covered by the zones, and provide a realistic
alternative to reliance on extended nuclear deterrence.
In particular, we call on the governments of Japan and South
Korea to prepare and publicize plans for creating a Northeast
Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone. This would create a favorable
environment for promoting the six-party talks designed to
denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.
- Bring world leaders, including U.S. President Obama,
to Hiroshima and Nagasaki to meet survivors and see for
themselves the consequences of the use of nuclear weapons,
which continue through the lives of survivors and subsequent
generations. It is essential to continue to impart the experiences
of A-bomb victims in all their aspects to people all over
the world. In this matter, Japan as the only country to
have suffered atomic bombing, has a unique contribution
to make.
To the leaders of the nations that have nuclear weapons and
those that wish to have them, we address our final comments
to you:
Surely you are aware through literature and films of the enormous
destructive power of the atomic bombs that destroyed Hiroshima
and Nagasaki. While you may believe that nuclear weapons serve
your national security interests and elevate your prestige,
you have not personally experienced the effects of an atomic
bomb explosion. The fact is that tens of thousands of innocent
citizens were obliterated instantly under those mushroom clouds,
that people who did not die instantly died after writhing in
agony, covered in blood or burned in fire, and that people who
narrowly escaped death had to suffer from radiation-induced
illnesses for the rest of their lives.
You cannot be proud of possessing nuclear weapons or seeking
to have them in the future. It means that you are conspirators
in a shameful offence against humanity. From Nagasaki, an atomic
bombed city, as global citizens, we demand that you take immediate
steps towards the realization of a world without nuclear weapons.
February 8, 2010
The 4th Nagasaki Global Citizens' Assembly for the Elimination
of Nuclear Weapons
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