Remembering Hiroshima For The Sake Of Our Common Future
Nuclear Abolition News Essay | IDN
By MONZURUL HUQ*
TOKYO (IDN) - Human memory is short, particularly when it comes to record war and destruction. Countless details of various times portraying the accounts of misery and human suffering probably remind us of something vague and abstract; something distant and detached, not at all related to the realities that we face at any given time. Since what is seen as vague or blurred hardly serves as solid evidence, and what is distant hardly seems inspiring for stirring our conscience to the level of awakening, we tend to forget about what war and destruction brings to mankind soon after the waves of tragic realities subside and pave the way for a relative tranquil setting, at least for a short time. [P] ARABIC | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | CHINESE TEXT VERSION PDF | KOREAN TEXT VERSION PDF | NORWEGIAN | SPANISH
Egypt Continues Efforts For A WMD-Free Mideast
Nuclear Abolition News | IDN
By BAHER KAMAL
MADRID (IDN) - In spite of social, economic and political instability in Egypt and other Arab countries, Cairo has lastly intensified its efforts aimed at eliminating, as soon as possible, all weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in the Middle East.
Egyptian diplomacy fears that further delays in taking specific actions to declare the Middle East a nuclear free zone, may lead to a nuclear armament race in the region, in view warnings that some major countries in the region, such as Saudi Arabia, might decide to go nuclear to face Israeli and Iranian nuclear threat. [P] CHINESE TEXT VERSION PDF | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | KOREAN TEXT VERSION PDF
Nuclear Abolition NewsViewpoint | IPS Eyewitness to Nuke Explosion Challenges World Powers
Nuclear Abolition News | IPS 
By THALIF DEEN
- When the Foreign Minister of Marshall Islands Tony de Brum addressed a nuclear review Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) meeting at the United Nations last month, he asked whether anyone in the room had witnessed a nuclear explosion.
The question was met, not surprisingly, with resounding silence.
As a nine-year-old boy, the minister vividly remembered seeing the white flash of the Bravo detonation on Bikini atoll, six decades ago. It was 1,000 times more powerful than Hiroshima, he told PrepCom delegates, mostly proponents of nuclear disarmament. [P] GERMAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | PORTUGUESE | SPANISH
Interfaith Leaders Jointly Call to Abolish Nuclear Arms
Nuclear Abolition News | IPS
By MICHELLE TULLO
- On the eve of next week’s meeting at the U.N. headquarters in New York on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), more than 100 representatives of 11 faith groups from around the world have pledged to step up their efforts to seek the global abolition of nuclear weapons. [P] ARABIC | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | SPANISH
U.S.-Dependent Pacific Island Defies Nuke Powers
Nuclear Abolition News | IPS 
- The tiny Pacific nation state of Marshall Islands – which depends heavily on the United States for its economic survival, uses the U.S. dollar as its currency and predictably votes with Washington on all controversial political issues at the United Nations – is challenging the world’s nuclear powers before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. [P] ARABIC | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF
U.S.-Russia Sabre Rattling May Undermine Nuke Meeting
Nuclear Abolition News | IPS
- The growing tension between the United States and Russia over Ukraine has threatened to unravel one of the primary peace initiatives of the United Nations: nuclear disarmament.
As they trade charges against each other, the world’s two major nuclear powers have intensified their bickering – specifically on the eve of a key Preparatory Committee (PrepCoM) meeting on a treaty to stop the proliferation of these weapons of mass destruction (WMD). [P] ARABIC | JAPNESE TEXT VERSION PDF
Hiroshima Meet Falls Short Of Outlawing Nukes
Nuclear Abolitiion News | IDN
By MONZURUL HUQ*
TOKYO (IDN) - The mere fact that the two-day foreign ministerial meeting of the 12-nation coalition of non-nuclear states took place in the Japanese city of Hiroshima, gives the clue to its symbolic significance. Being the first city in the world to witness the horrors of atomic destruction, Hiroshima, from that very fateful day almost 70 years ago, remains at the forefront of global efforts to learn about the devastating impact weapons of mass destruction can cause and also serves as a reminder of the necessity of eliminating nuclear weapons. That symbolic gesture of holding the meeting in Hiroshima on April 11-12, 2014 received added value as the ministers listened to the stories of atomic bomb survivors before starting their formal discussion. [P] ARABIC TEXT VERSION PDF | CHINESE TEXT VERSION PDF | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | KOREAN TEXT VERSION PDF
Summary of Nuclear Abolition Treaty Provisions
Nuclear Abolition NewsEssay | IDN
By FREDERICK N. MATTI*
ANNAPOLIS, USA (IDN) - Nuclear weapons are the most devastating of instruments, with their quadruple means of dealing mass death and destruction: blast, heat, radiation, firestorm. Surely, the last thing even the nuclear-armed states want is a nuclear “exchange,” anywhere on earth. But those states in general have not fully considered the security advantages of worldwide abolition of nuclear weapons, and a likely reason is that they have not been presented “satisfactory” answers to fundamental issues for abolishing nuclear weapons.
Exploring the Path Towards a Nuclear-free World
Nuclear Abolition NewsViewpoint | IPS
By DAISAKU IKEDA*
- This past February, the Second Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons was held in Nayarit, Mexico, as a follow-up to the first such conference held last year in Oslo, Norway. The conclusion reached by this conference, on the basis of scientific research, was that “no State or international organisation has the capacity to address or provide the short and long term humanitarian assistance and protection needed in case of a nuclear weapon explosion.” JAPANESE TEXT VERSION | PDF
