Image: Members of the Warheads to Windmills met with Ambassador H.E. Mrs. Vanessa Frazier (3rd from right) of the Malta Mission to the United Nations in New York First a country’s President or Prime Minister must sign a treaty. Then a country’s parliament or congress must ratify the treaty. The final step is to implement…
Today, June 17th, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons launched its fifth annual report on nuclear weapons spending. Surge: 2023 Global Nuclear Weapons Spending Their report shows over $91 billion spent on nuclear weapons in 2023, an increase of over 10 billion from 2022. That is $2,898 per second wasted on nuclear weapons. This…
Activists at the 2023 UN Climate Change Conference, the COP 28 in Dubai, and the 2nd Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the 2MSP in New York met via zoom on November 30 to share experiences from the two big overlapping international meetings. The conversation included activists from the Warheads…
On Dec 1, 2023, the last day of the Nuclear Ban Treaty meeting in New York, the Ambassador of Malta to the UN, Vanessa Frazier, hosted a side event inside the UN building to share findings from Timmon’s new book about joining forces, facing facts, and taking effective action on the “twin threats” to our…
Thursday, November 30th 2023 12:30-2pm ET (9:30-11pm UAE) Click below to join the conversation! As activists gather in New York for the Second Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and in Dubai for the 28th UN Climate Change Conference, we will be connecting the movements against these two…
“We are faced by a gathering storm of existential level consequences and time is running out. We need bold, ethical leadership and frankly, we are not seeing it.” Mary Robinson, Chair of The Elders and former President of the Republic of Ireland Mary Robinson made these comments at the unveiling, on January 24th, of the…
On January 9, 2023, the small island country of Djibouti became the 92nd country to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Djibouti voted in favor of the treaty at the treaty negotiations in 2017 and is the latest country to finally sign it. Another 30 countries voted for the treaty and…
September 22, 2022: Five more countries signed the TPNW and two more ratifications were deposited at a special high-level side event during the opening of the UN General Assembly in New York. This is traditionally a time each year when presidents, prime ministers and other high-level dignitaries come to the UN In NY to deliver…
PHOTO: Wikimedia Commons Vienna, Austria- The first Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (1MSP) was held this week. At the meeting, Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Dominican Republic, Ghana, Indonesia, Mozambique, Nepal, and Niger all declared their commitment to completing the ratification process for the…
PHOTO: Wikimedia Commons | Guatemala- On June 13th, Guatemala became the 62nd country to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. With Guatemala’s ratification, Central America became the first contiguous region to have entirely joined the TPNW. When the TPNW opened for signature on September 20, 2017, Guatemala’s minister of foreign affairs signed…
PHOTO: Wikimedia Commons Ottawa, Canada; Turin, Italy: The capital city of Canada unanimously approved a motion to join the Cities Appeal by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). This Appeal calls on the Canadian government to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). The City Council recognized that…
PHOTO: Wikimedia Commons Australians went to the polls on May 20th, and elected a new center-left government after nine years of rule by a conservative coalition. The new Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, has promised sweeping changes in a wide range of policy areas, including stronger commitment to tackling the climate crisis and addressing indigenous rights.…
PHOTO: Wikimedia Commons March 24, 2022: The West African nation of Cote d’Ivoire today became the 60th nation to deposit its instrument of ratification of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) with the United Nations. Cote d’Ivoire voted for adoption of the TPNW with 121 other countries in July 2017. The then…
PHOTO: Welsh Senedd Cardiff, Wales: The Welsh Assembly, recently renamed the “Senedd,” voted on March 9, 2022 to pass an amendment calling on all countries to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The amendment was added at the last moment by Plaid Cymru, the Welsh nationalist party, to a resolution…
Congratulations to Malta, the 45th country to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons! Only five more ratifications to go before the Treaty has the requisite number of 50 to “enter into force” as binding international law. Already there are more than 40 countries in the process of ratifying the treaty, so the…
September 21, 2020: More than fifty former world leaders have signed a letter released today, in support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, or Nuclear Ban Treaty. The former leaders and ministers, from 22 NATO members as well as from Japan and South Korea, state that their countries, by claiming protection from…
Kazakhstan became the 57th country to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on Friday, 2nd March. In a statement to the UN Security Council, President Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan called on the nuclear powers to ‘lead by example’ and get rid of their nuclear weapons. “Nuclear bombs and rockets do not possess real…
The largest Dutch pension fund, the civil servants fund ABP, has decided to end its investments in producers of nuclear weapons. ABP has “finally made the right decision”, says PAX campaigner Krista van Velzen. “After years of campaigning by PAX against the unacceptable investments by the ABP in nuclear weapon producers, the pension fund has…
By a unanimous vote of 70-0, the Mexican Senate agreed on 28th November, 2017 to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Once Mexico’s instrument of ratification has been deposited with the United Nations, they will become the fourth country to ratify the new treaty. Thailand, Guyana and the Holy See have so…