This early-morning April 15, 2024, picture at the entry to the Kansas City National Security Campus shows sign-holders, including a young girl, with this request to workers in their cars: Honeywell, stop escalating nuclear war. Our actions in KC MO help move the planet closer to a nuke-free world! -- Photo by Tom Fox
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons sent this letter to ICAN members Sept. 26, congratulating all of us around the world for pressing countries and cities to adopt the TPNW, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Any effort anywhere to abolish nukes should take a bow … including PeaceWorks KC, a contributing member of ICAN.
Dear campaigners,
Congratulations!
Moments ago, Ghana ratified the TPNW, and Kyrgyzstan signed it!
These actions bring the TPNW membership to 74 States Parties, plus a further 25 Signatories. Counting all states that have taken TPNW treaty actions, we now have 99! That means that we now have a global majority of states that have taken this significant step to reject nuclear weapons forever.
Theodora Williams Anti, from ICAN Partner Organization Foundation for Security and Development in Africa (FOSDA), said, “Ghana’s ratification of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is a proud moment for our nation and a powerful statement to Africa and the world. By joining the majority of states in rejecting these weapons of mass destruction, Ghana affirms its unwavering commitment to peace, human security, and the protection of future generations. This milestone reminds us that true strength lies not in the threat of annihilation, but in the courage to choose dialogue, cooperation, and a safer world for all.”
Congratulations to all campaigners! Across the world we’ve educated, argued, advocated, and informed politicians and governments and now we have moved into the majority.
Reaching global majority is a significant milestone for the TPNW, which is a relatively young treaty; negotiated less than a decade ago, and in force since January 2021.
Once again we’re showing that the pro-nuclear weapons countries are a distinct minority. Of the 10 largest countries in the world by population, five are TPNW states parties or signatories: Indonesia, Nigeria, Brazil, Bangladesh and Mexico.
International support for the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is growing and a global majority has now signed, ratified, or acceded to the treaty only 8 years after it was negotiated and under 5 years since it came into force.
The TPNW has established the pathway under international law to fair and verifiable disarmament.
The TPNW emerged from an evidence-based approach, recognising the catastrophic humanitarian harm that nuclear weapons are known to cause. As we know from the US nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki 80 years ago, the effects of nuclear weapons are uniquely cruel and inhumane because of the indiscriminate, lasting, intergenerational harm they cause.
The more countries that join the TPNW, the more the diplomatic pressure on the nuclear-armed states grows to eliminate their arsenals. These nuclear-armed countries have no right to threaten the rest of the world, putting us at a higher risk of nuclear weapons use than there’s been in decades.
Today, Kyrgyzstan and Ghana took a stand against these threats, and for global safety and security.
