Good News
Campaigns against smoking made headway when they stopped trying to convince smokers to give up their addiction, and instead focused more on non-smokers to that they had the right to smoke-free environments such as work places, restaurants and other public places.
Similarly, the global campaign against nuclear weapons has picked up steam recently less through challenging the nuclear-armed states towards empowering the nuclear-free states to assert their right to a nuclear weapons-free world.
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The 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference expressed “deep concern at the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons” and demanded that all states obey the law.
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Parliaments in several countries, including Canada, Switzerland and Mexico have called for negotiations for a Nuclear Weapons Convention to prohibit the development, production, acquisition, testing, stockpiling, transfer, use or threat of use, of nuclear weapons. Mexico has called for the threat or use of nuclear weapons to be declared illegal under the international Criminal Court.
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In December 2011, a Summit of Latin American and Caribbean States called for a high–level conference to identify ways and to stipulate their destruction.
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At the 2012 Vienna Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Preparatory Committee a joint statement on the “humanitarian dimension of nuclear disarmament” sponsored by 16 governments insisted that all NPT parties, “especially the nuclear weapon States, [should] give increasing attention to their commitment to comply with international law and international humanitarian law.” It concluded by calling on states to “intensify their efforts to outlaw nuclear weapons and achieve a world free of nuclear weapons”.
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On 14 June 2012 the International Red Cross and Red Crescent resolved that nuclear weapons violate international humanitarian law and called for States to negotiate a global ban on nuclear weapons.
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At the 2012 Vienna Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Preparatory Committee Switzerland presented a joint statement on the “humanitarian dimension of nuclear disarmament” sponsored by 16 governments insisted that all NPT parties, “especially the nuclear weapon States, [should] give increasing attention to their commitment to comply with international law and international humanitarian law.” It concluded by calling on states to “intensify their efforts to outlaw nuclear weapons and achieve a world free of nuclear weapons”.
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On 22 October 2012 at this year’s First Committee of the 35 states delivered a joint statement which called on all states to “intensify their efforts to outlaw nuclear weapons and achieve a world free of nuclear weapons.”
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In 2013 Norway will host an inter-governmental conference on the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons.
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Support this growing pressure by signing your own Affirmation
