STATEMENT
A secure and livable world for our children and grandchildren
and all future generations requires that we achieve a world free
of nuclear weapons and redress the environmental degradation and
human suffering that is the legacy of fifty years of nuclear weapons
testing and production.
Further, the inextricable link
between the "peaceful" and warlike uses of nuclear technologies
and the threat to future generations inherent in creation and
use of long-lived radioactive materials must be recognized. We
must move toward reliance on clean, safe, renewable forms of energy
production that do not provide the materials for weapons of mass
destruction and do not poison the environment for thousands of
centuries. The true "inalienable" right is not to nuclear
energy, but to life, liberty and security of person in a world
free of nuclear weapons.
We recognize that a nuclear weapons free world must be achieved
carefully and in a step by step manner. We are convinced of its
technological feasibility. Lack of political will, especially
on the part of the nuclear weapons states, is the only true barrier.
As chemical and biological weapons are prohibited, so must nuclear
weapons be prohibited.
We call upon all states particularly the nuclear weapons states,
declared and de facto to take the following steps to achieve nuclear
weapons abolition. We further urge the states parties to the NPT
to demand binding commitments by the declared nuclear weapons
states to implement these measures:
- Initiate immediately and conclude by the year
2000 negotiations on a nuclear
weapons abolition convention that
requires the phased elimination of all nuclear weapons within
a timebound framework, with provisions for effective verification
and enforcement.*
- Immediately make an unconditional pledge not
to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons.
- Rapidly complete a truly comprehensive
test ban treaty with a zero threshold
and with the stated purpose of precluding nuclear weapons development
by all states.
- Cease to produce and deploy new and additional
nuclear weapons systems, and commence to withdraw and disable
deployed nuclear weapons systems.
- Prohibit the military and commercial production
and reprocessing of all weapons-usable radioactive materials.
- Subject all weapons-usable radioactive materials
and nuclear facilities in all states to international accounting,
monitoring, and safeguards, and establish a public international
registry of all weapons-usable radioactive materials.
- Prohibit nuclear weapons research, design,
development, and testing through laboratory experiments including
but not limited to non-nuclear hydrodynamic explosions and computer
simulations, subject all nuclear weapons laboratories to international
monitoring, and close all nuclear test sites.
- Create additional nuclear weapons free zones
such as those established by the treaties of Tlatelolco and
Rarotonga.
- Recognize and declare the illegality of threat
or use of nuclear weapons, publicly and before the World
Court.
- Establish an international energy agency to
promote and support the development of sustainable and environmentally
safe energy sources.
- Create mechanisms to ensure the participation
of citizens and NGOs in planning and monitoring the process
of nuclear weapons abolition.
A world free of nuclear weapons is a shared aspiration of humanity.
This goal cannot be achieved in a non-proliferation regime that
authorizes the possession of nuclear weapons by a small group
of states. Our common security requires the complete elimination
of nuclear weapons. Our objective is definite and unconditional
abolition of nuclear weapons.
* The convention should mandate irreversible
disarmament measures, including but not limited to the following:
withdraw and disable all deployed nuclear weapons systems; disable
and dismantle warheads; place warheads and weapon-usable radioactive
materials under international safeguards; destroy ballistic missiles
and other delivery systems. The convention could also incorporate
the measures listed above which should be implemented independently
without delay. When fully implemented, the convention would replace
the NPT.
To sign your group or organization onto this statement visit:
Nuclear Age
Peace Foundation
1187 Coast Village Road, Suite 121; Santa Barbara, California;
93108;
(t) +01 (805) 965-3443; (f) +01 (805) 568-0466; wagingpeace@napf.org
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