We are contacting you because of your interest or engagement in international law, peace and disarmament, or your involvement in the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA).

You may be aware that on 17 January the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved the hands of their Doomsday Clock closer to midnight. The Clock indicates, in the view of eminent scientists, how close we are to a catastrophe that could destroy civilization. It now stands at 5 minutes to midnight. The move was made because of the growing risks from climate change and a growing threat from nuclear weapons including North Korea joining the nuclear club, Iran possibly on its way to doing so, an increased readiness by existing nuclear weapon powers to use nuclear weapons, and an increased propensity to use military force to deal with nuclear proliferation issues.

Mathematician Stephen Hawking, at the press conference announcing the Doomsday Clock change, noted; "As scientists, we understand the dangers of nuclear weapons and their devastating effects…As citizens of the world, we have a duty to alert the public to the unnecessary risks that we live with every day, and to the perils we foresee if governments and societies do not take action now to render nuclear weapons obsolete and to prevent further climate change."

This indicates the vital importance of IALANA's work to abolish nuclear weapons.

We have a number of projects this year which could play a significant role in delegitimising nuclear weapons and paving the way for their complete abolition. These include:  

1) a proposal to the United Nations to request the International Court of Justice to render an Advisory Opinion on what is required of the nuclear powers in order to fully implement their nuclear disarmament obligations, and

2) the revision and release of the Model Nuclear Weapons Convention and the book Security and Survival: The Case for a Nuclear Weapons Convention.