Civil Society Support for Marshall Islands Against Nukes

Nuclear Abolition News | IPS

By JULIA RAINER

VIENNA (IPS) - Ahead of the Dec. 8-9 Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons, activists from all over the world came together in the Austrian capital to participate in a civil society forum organised by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) on Dec. 6 and 7. [P] BAHASA | GERMAN |  JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | PORTUGUESE | SPANISH | TURKISH

Nuclear-Weapon Free Northeast Asia Is Possible

Nuclear Abolition News | IDN

By JAMSHED BARUAH

GENEVA (IDN) - While existing tensions in Northeast Asia continue to be a source of concern and urgent action is required to diffuse these and bring about meaningful cooperation, a nuclear-weapon free zone (NWFZ) in the region is possible and should in fact be a priority, according to an international conference held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, on November 26. [P] ARABIC | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF

Why Nuclear Disarmament Could Still Be the Most Important Thing There Is

Nuclear Abolition News | IPS

By RISTO ISOMAKI

In this column, Risto Isomäki, Finnish environmental activist and award-winning writer whose novels have been translated into several languages, describes the practically unimaginable capacity for destruction inherent in the nuclear facilities that currently exist around the world and argues that we have to try the impossible – force nuclear technologies back into the Pandora’s box from which they came.

HELSINKI (IPS) - At the height of the Cold War the world’s total arsenal of nuclear weapons, counted as explosive potential, may have amounted to three million Hiroshima bombs. The United States alone possessed 1.6 million Hiroshimas’ worth of destructive capacity.

Since then, much of this arsenal has been dismantled and the uranium in thousands of nuclear bombs has been converted to nuclear power plant fuel. [P] JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | PORTUGUESE | SPANISH

Humanitarian Impact of Nukes Calls For Concerted Action

Nuclear Abolition NewsViewpoint |IPS and IDN

By DAISAKU IKEDA*

TOKYO (IPS | IDN) - As we approach the 70th anniversary next year of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there are growing calls to place the humanitarian consequences of their use at the heart of deliberations about nuclear weapons.

The Joint Statement on the Humanitarian Consequences of Nuclear Weapons presented to the U.N. General Assembly in October was supported by 155 governments, more than 80 percent of all member states. [P] GERMAN | ITALIAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | PERSIAN | SPANISH | TURKISH

IPS Honours Crusader for Nuclear Abolition

Nuclear Abolition News | IPS

By ROGER HAMILTON-MARTIN

UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - Jayantha Dhanapala was awarded the IPS International Achievement Award for Nuclear Disarmament on Nov. 17 at the United Nations in New York.

Dhanapala, U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs until 2003, has remained committed to the goal of a nuclear weapons-free world since leaving his post, presiding since 2007 over the Nobel Prize-winning Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs. GERMAN | JAPANESE | PORTUGUESE | SPANISH

A Nuclear Weapon Free Zone for North-East Asia?

 Nuclear Abolition News | IDN

By JAYANTHA DHANAPALA

KANDY, Sri Lanka (IDN) - In 2015 it will be 70 years since the horrible bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the USA – the only time nuclear weapons were ever used. The urgent need to seek solutions over nuclear weapons in North-east Asia was highlighted in the following paragraphs from the Asia Pacific Leaders Network’s (APLN) Jakarta Declaration of September 2014:

“Acutely conscious that the world’s more than 16,000 remaining nuclear weapons are strongly concentrated in the Asia Pacific region, with the US and Russia having over 90 per cent of the world’s stockpile and major strategic footprints here, China, India, and Pakistan all having significant arsenals, and the breakout state of North Korea continuing to build its capability, [P] JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF

2015 a Make-or-Break Year for Nuclear Disarmament

Nuclear Abolition News | IPS

By THALIF DEEN

UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last month singled out what he described as “one of the greatest ironies of modern science”: while humans are searching for life on other planets, the world’s nuclear powers are retaining and modernising their weapons to destroy life on planet earth.

“We must counter the militarism that breeds the pursuit of such weaponry,” he warned. [P] GERMAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | PORTUGUESE

Waiting For Zero Nuke

Nuclear Abolition News | IDN

By D RAVI KANTH*

GENEVA (IDN) - The commemoration of the United Nations International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons on September 26 was a grim reminder of the continued threat from nuclear weapons to people at large. [P] CHINESE TEXT VERSION PDF |  GERMAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF  | NORWEGIAN | SPANISH | PERSIAN (FARSI) | TURKISH

Zero Nuclear Weapons: A Never-Ending Journey Ahead

Nuclear Abolition News | IPS

By THALIF DEEN

UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - When the United Nations commemorated its first ever “international day for the total elimination of nuclear weapons,” the lingering question in the minds of most anti-nuclear activists was: are we anywhere closer to abolishing the deadly weapons or are we moving further and further away from their complete destruction? [P] GERMAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF

OPINION: Sleepwalking Towards Nuclear War

Nuclear Abolition News | IPS

By HELGE LURAS*

OSLO (IPS) - New military measures to deter what NATO perceives to be a direct threat from Russia were adopted at the alliance’s Heads of State meeting in Wales (Sep. 4-5). A few days earlier, President Barack Obama made promises in Estonia that the three tiny Baltic NATO member states would “never stand alone”

Since early 2014, Russia has done practically all that Western leaders have warned President Vladimir Putin in advance not to do. Crimea was occupied and annexed. Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine were encouraged and given practical support. Later, Russian personnel and equipment came more and more openly into conflict with Ukrainian forces. [P] JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF