2024-10-04

From the UN Future Summit to a world free of nuclear weapons?

What I expected from the outset is slowly starting to emerge in the announcements from civil society: The disappointment is there. Some are still trying to disguise it in a positive light. It sounds like ‘it didn't help, but it was nice that we were there’. All of this painted with colourful photos on social networks. The networkers of ‘Abolition 2000’ were able to gain something from the agreed Future Pact after all and want to continue working with it.

At the Summit of the Future, world leaders agreed that “A nuclear war would visit devastation upon all humankind and we must make every effort to avert the danger of such a war… a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought”. They decided to “Recommit to the goal of the total elimination of nuclear weapons” and to “strengthening the disarmament and non-proliferation architecture and work to prevent any erosion of existing international norms and take all possible steps to prevent nuclear war."

'Abilition 2000' had invited people to a webinar on 1 October. The statements made there did not sound particularly optimistic. These were all arguments that have been known for a long time. The fact that leading politicians from many nations are committed to nuclear disarmament is nothing new. Since 2017, the United Nations General Assembly has adopted a binding Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons under international law. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), which was involved in the treaty, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in the same year. However, neither the disarmament advocates nor the Nobel Prize Committee are decisive here, but the leading politicians of the nations that possess nuclear weapons. And the prohibition of nuclear weapons does not apply to them because they have not agreed to it. So the criminal cannot be held responsible because he rejects the law. This is how international law works.

Is a world without nuclear weapons even possible?
A world free of nuclear weapons - and then what?
The unification of mankind is a prerequisite!

World without nuclear weapons - by Richard Maxheim (substack.com)