March 28, 2017

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo visiting New York City on March 26 held talks with the president of the UN conference to establish a legally-binding accord banning nuclear weapons and exchanged views on how to make the conference a success.

Shii explained his party’s stance at the meeting and said, “It is important to conclude a Nuclear Weapons Convention even if nuclear weapons states refuse to join it at first, though their participation should be continuously called for. It is also important to fully utilize the convention to go forward with a total ban on nuclear weapons.”

Shii said, “It is likely that the negotiations will face many challenges. However, I sincerely hope that participating nations will form a consensus and produce an outcome that will lead to the establishment of an anti-nuke treaty.”

The UN conference chair Elayne Whyte, who is also the Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the UN Office at Geneva (UNOG), said that an increasing understanding of the inhumanity of nuclear weapons and the growing criticism over stalled discussions on nuclear disarmament in the international arena, including the United Nations, have brought about the 2016 UNGA resolution to launch negotiations on a NWC.

Whyte pointed out that the resolution calls for the conclusion of a legally-binding convention prohibiting nuclear weapons as early as possible. She said that such a treaty will become a first step toward the internationally shared goal of a world free from nuclear weapons.

Whyte expressed her hope that the conference will have fruitful discussions and produce concrete proposals in regard to provisions of a NWC and said that she has the intention of proposing her draft to the second session of the conference scheduled to be launched in June.

Shii pointed out that grass-roots based anti-nuclear movements across the globe are instrumental in establishing the realization of a nuclear weapons ban treaty. Shii reported on the international signature-collection campaign in support of the Hibakusha’s Appeal for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons which aims to collect several hundreds of millions of signatures from people around the world. He said that the number of signatures collected in Japan alone has exceeded 1.7 million.

The UN conference chair welcomed the Hibakusha-led signature drive. She said that it is the responsibility of the present generation to protect all life on this planet and to guard the safety of future generations, and that this encourages her to work for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

Shii handed over to Whyte the JCP’s request to the UN.

Past related article:
> Shii will join UN conference on NWC [March 17, 2017]