Our first responsibility, if we want to be Treaty Compliant, is not to be directly involved ourselves in the research, development, manufacture, or maintaining of nuclear weapons. Unless you work in the nuclear weapons industry or for a financial institution which is financing that industry, avoiding the prohibited activities is fairly straightforward for an individual or non-governmental organization.

If you do work in these industries, or have direct involvement with them, to be in compliance with the treaty means removing yourself from that situation. This is simply to be in compliance with the Nuremberg Principles that were established at the end of WWII. According to these principles, no one is innocent of crimes against humanity or other violations of international law just because these may not be crimes in a particular country at a particular time.

This may sound like a rather harsh reality for all those people whose families and communities and livelihoods depend on working in the nuclear weapons industry. That is why there are many other pieces to this campaign, including the commitment to work at every level for the conversion of illegal nuclear weapons work to the essential work of addressing climate change. This means re-tooling of nuclear weapons facilities and re-skilling of workers to meet this challenge.

In terms of steps that would be taken to remove oneself from the nuclear weapons industry, the first is obviously to know whether or not your place of employment or source of income is part of that industry.

The second step would be to speak with your employer or contractor to clarify your concerns and make it known that you cannot continue to be involved in activities that are illegal under international law.

Whether or not the next step would be to go public with this would depend on a person’s personal and family circumstances.

Finding alternative work is clearly the most difficult challenge in these situations. No one should have to go through this on their own. Many of the skills and experiences involved in nuclear weapons related work are directly transferable to the sustainable energy field. Others are less so. Large-scale conversion of whole factories and workforces will require government and/or major investor interventions.

For cities or states, avoidance of prohibited activities will mean the passing of legally binding instruments that specify what is prohibited and the consequences of violating those prohibitions.