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Gensuikyo announces a new international anti-nuclear signature collecting campaign

The Japan Council against A&H Bombs (Japan Gensuikyo) announced on December 22 a new international signature collecting campaign to be launched on January 1, 2006 calling for the "swift abolition of nuclear weapons."

The appeal calls on the United Nations and all governments in the world, including those of nuclear weapons possessing countries, for immediately starting consultations on concluding an international convention for the total ban and elimination of nuclear weapons.

At a press conference Taka Hiroshi, Japan Gensuikyo secretary general, made public that 39 organizations and 5 individuals of 17 countries not including Japan, as well as 7 international organizations and one government official have expressed their support for the new campaign. They include prominent persons such as Noam Chomsky, Daniel Ellsberg, and Rajimah Hussain, Permanent Representative of Malaysia to the U.N. in Vienna.

The new campaign aims at building strong world public support for the elimination of nuclear weapons by isolating the forces clinging to nuclear weapons (headed by the U.S.), using the power of grassroots activism in collaboration with governments seeking abolition.

The Japanese anti-nuclear movement has played a significant role in increasing world opinion in favor of the abolition of nuclear weapons. In May this year, it sent a 1,000 strong delegation to New York to request that the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference respond to the demand, submitting to the United Nations more than five million signatures collected since 2003 demanding immediate abolition.
- Akahata, December 23, 2005