October 6 & 7, 2011
Delegates of the Japan Council against A & H Bombs (Japan Gensuikyo) on October 5 submitted to the First Committee of the U.N. General Assembly more than 1 million signatures collected in the “Appeal for a Total Ban on Nuclear Weapons” campaign.
The signatures were handed to Jarmo Viinanen, Chair of the First Committee, and Sergio de Queiroz Duarte, U.N. High Representative for Disarmament Affairs.
They include the signatures of 766 municipal heads, 97 vice municipal heads, 557 local assembly chairs, 42 vice local assembly chairs, and 131 local education board chairs throughout Japan.
Handing the signatures to the U.N. officials, Gensuikyo delegation head Taka Hiroshi stated that the campaign is in response to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s call at the NPT Review Conference in May 2010 for the abolition of nuclear weapons and is aimed at realizing the final agreement in the Conference to set a framework to achieve the “peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.”
Taka requested that the current U.N. General Assembly make a positive response to the call for the start of negotiations on a convention to totally ban nuclear weapons.
Since the First Committee’s opening day on October 3, 15 members of the Gensuikyo delegation have visited representatives of NATO member states, non-aligned nations, member states of nuclear free zones, and the Japan office at the U.N. headquarters in New York, calling for their participation in the global effort to get rid of nuclear weapons.
During the session of the First Committee on October 3, U.N. High Representative Duarte stated his appreciation of the grass-root movements in support of nuclear disarmament worldwide and acknowledged Gensuikyo’s delivery of 7-million signatures to the last NPT Review Conference as a significant effort to achieve a nuclear weapons-free world.
Duarte participated in the World Conference against A & H Bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August this year on behalf of U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
The signatures were handed to Jarmo Viinanen, Chair of the First Committee, and Sergio de Queiroz Duarte, U.N. High Representative for Disarmament Affairs.
They include the signatures of 766 municipal heads, 97 vice municipal heads, 557 local assembly chairs, 42 vice local assembly chairs, and 131 local education board chairs throughout Japan.
Handing the signatures to the U.N. officials, Gensuikyo delegation head Taka Hiroshi stated that the campaign is in response to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s call at the NPT Review Conference in May 2010 for the abolition of nuclear weapons and is aimed at realizing the final agreement in the Conference to set a framework to achieve the “peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.”
Taka requested that the current U.N. General Assembly make a positive response to the call for the start of negotiations on a convention to totally ban nuclear weapons.
Since the First Committee’s opening day on October 3, 15 members of the Gensuikyo delegation have visited representatives of NATO member states, non-aligned nations, member states of nuclear free zones, and the Japan office at the U.N. headquarters in New York, calling for their participation in the global effort to get rid of nuclear weapons.
During the session of the First Committee on October 3, U.N. High Representative Duarte stated his appreciation of the grass-root movements in support of nuclear disarmament worldwide and acknowledged Gensuikyo’s delivery of 7-million signatures to the last NPT Review Conference as a significant effort to achieve a nuclear weapons-free world.
Duarte participated in the World Conference against A & H Bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August this year on behalf of U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
