Appeal from the Hiroshima Conference for the Total Abolition of Nuclear Weapons by 2020

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Appeal from the Hiroshima Conference for the Total Abolition of Nuclear Weapons by 2020
I. The Hiroshima Conference for the Total Abolition of Nuclear Weapons by 2020 brought together 203 participants from 69 cities and 51 NGOs in 16 countries on the eve of the 65th anniversaries of the atomic bombings to discuss the outcome of the May 2010 Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and explore the most effective means of facilitating progress toward a nuclear-weapon-free world. The conference welcomed the message from UN Secretary - General Ban Ki-moon, in which he declared: “Most of the world’s population today lives in cities. If the mayors of the world are uniting, the world is uniting.” The conference positively notes that this NPT Review Conference confirmed by consensus the commitment of the 190 States Parties to achieve a nuclear-weapon-free world. Significantly, the final document, for the first time and despite considerable resistance from most of the nuclear weapon states, mentions a nuclear weapons convention and the role of civil society. Building on this foundation, we are determined to do everything in our power to achieve the elimination of nuclear weapons. The final document notes that most nations advise establishment of timelines for the negotiation process. For forty years, the promise of NPT Article VI calling for good faith negotiations on nuclear disarmament, has gone unfulfilled. Now, the survivors of the hell on earth experienced by Hiroshima and Nagasaki 65 years ago have reached an average age of 76 years. We demand that all governments, especially those of the nuclear- armed states, recognize the urgent need to abolish nuclear weapons, establish firm time tables, take concrete action, and produce results. The international community carries a profound responsibility to achieve a nuclear-weapon-free world while the hibakusha are still with us. The Mayors for Peace global network of over 4,000 cities has become a strong civil society voice calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons by 2020. The process to achieve a nuclear weapons convention set forth by Mayors for Peace in the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol is increasingly important and urgent. Prior to the Review Conference, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon advanced a 5-point plan for achieving a world without nuclear weapons. That plan clearly calls for a nuclear weapons convention, and we anticipate that the UN will make significant progress under the leadership of the Secretary-General. As he has stated, the abolition of nuclear weapons should be the UN’s highest priority. The nuclear-armed states and those under nuclear umbrellas must recognize that the Secretary-General’s proposed actions reflect the will of the vast majority of nations and people on this planet. This conference looked toward progress within the UN, the global forum for comprehensive
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negotiations. However, we also looked at the Ottawa and Oslo processes through which the international community achieved bans on anti-personnel landmines and cluster munitions. The human family deemed it wise to ban these indiscriminate weapons. Now, civil society and governments should begin acting with urgency to eliminate nuclear weapons – the ultimate indiscriminate weapon, which threatens human survival. Due to the catastrophic consequences of nuclear weapons, they clearly violate international humanitarian law. Every stage of the nuclear weapon cycle, including the development, manufacturing, testing, and use of nuclear weapons, has poisoned the environment and damaged human health and, therefore, we commend all efforts to control these stages effectively such as the CTBT. VII. What we need is political will and concerted action to abolish nuclear weapons. Mayors for Peace will demand leadership and action from not only Japan, the only A-bombed nation, but also other governments. This conference hereby calls for a broad, closely cooperating coalition to create and sustain the political will necessary to achieve a nuclear weapons convention. The key will be to rally our forces with a heightened sense of urgency. New studies show that the detonation – by accident or design – of even a very limited number of modern nuclear weapons equal to 100 Hiroshima bombs, would lead to catastrophic climate change resulting in famine and mass starvation on an unprecedented global scale. Mayors for Peace will be emphasizing the strong grassroots demand for a nuclear abolition process that sets deadlines. In addition to focusing on a timetable, we must prioritize organization. Now is the time for closer collaboration among all like minded countries, cities, NGOs, citizens and the UN to build a more powerful, unified global campaign for a comprehensive ban on the development, testing, production, modernization, possession, deployment and use of nuclear weapons. This conference calls on people and governments to join hands in a global effort to abolish nuclear weapons by 2020. Mayors for Peace and the participants in the Hiroshima Conference for the Total Abolition of Nuclear Weapons by 2020:
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1) In support of the UN Secretary-General’s 5-point plan, call upon all governments to immediately start negotiations toward the conclusion of an international treaty banning nuclear weapons in time to eliminate those weapons by 2020. To this end, governments that have expressed their desire for a comprehensive legal process, in partnership with like-minded NGOs, should convene a special disarmament conference in 2011 to facilitate the start of negotiations on a nuclear weapons convention. 2) Demand that all countries promptly cease all activities related to the development, testing, production, modernization, deployment, and use of nuclear weapons and related infrastructure. In this regard, we demand that countries redouble their efforts to bring the Comprehensive
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Nuclear test Ban Treaty into force urgently and without conditions. Special responsibility lies with the nine remaining countries which must sign and ratify the Treaty for it to come into force. Effort must also go toward bringing the Protocols to the Nuclear-Weapon-Free-Zones treaties into force, responsibility for which lies with the nuclear-weapon states. 3) Call on governments to drastically reduce nuclear weapon and related military spending and to redirect those funds to meet human needs and restore the environment. We commend the US Conference of Mayors for calling on the US Congress to “terminate funding for modernization of the nuclear weapons complex and nuclear weapon systems, to reduce spending on nuclear weapons programs well below Cold War levels, and to redirect funds to meet the urgent needs of cities.” To this end, local and national governments and private citizens could consider divesting funds from entities that support or benefit from nuclear weapons. 4) Demand that governments that are party to nuclear sharing agreements or that hide under nuclear umbrellas reject nuclear weapons as part of their military and security doctrines, concepts and policies. As the Secretary-General said in his message to this conference: “Nuclear disarmament is often dismissed as a dream, when the real fantasies are the claims that nuclear weapons guarantee security or increase a country’s status and prestige.” 5) Demand that governments uphold their nonproliferation commitments under the NPT by ensuring that their nuclear related exports do not directly or indirectly assist the development of nuclear weapons. 6) Call on the Japanese government, which has declared that as the only A-bombed country, it will lead the way to a nuclear-weapon-free world, to take proactive measures to this end. For example, it could invite heads of state, especially of the nuclear-armed states, to a conference in Hiroshima or Nagasaki, where governments and NGOs will confront the future nuclear weapons hold in store for humankind, recognize the urgent need to eliminate these weapons, and work together toward a nuclear weapons convention. 7) Call on national governments and the UN to implement broad programs of nuclear disarmament education as stipulated in the NPT Review Conference final document. In doing so, we urge them to communicate fully the facts about the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the message of the hibakusha, with the goal of promoting critical thinking, developing leadership and fostering in young people the determination to abolish nuclear weapons. This education also needs to take place at the local level, in our homes, schools, workplaces and communities. We must develop innovative methods of communicating information about nuclear weapons to new generations. 8) Call on cities and other municipalities to join Mayors for Peace in order to: engage with, empower and educate their citizens about the urgent need to eliminate nuclear weapons; and to encourage their national governments to take proactive measures leading to a nuclear weapons convention. 9) In Japan, help Mayors for Peace to double its membership (now 772) and initiate meetings and
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seminars for citizens, NGOs, and local authorities in order to demand more effective action toward nuclear abolition by the Japanese government and the United Nations. 10) Strengthen collaboration among Mayors for Peace, Abolition 2000, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), the Middle Powers Initiative, Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament and other global networks, NGOs and citizens groups. Working toward unity and broad-based participation, our goal is to intensify and strengthen global civil society’s demand for a nuclear weapons convention and concrete nuclear disarmament measures.
July 29, 2010 Hiroshima Conference for the Total Abolition of Nuclear Weapons by 2020
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