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2017 March 15 - 21 TOP3 [JCP]

Shii will join UN conference on NWC

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo on March 16 at a press conference in the Diet building announced that he will participate in a UN conference which will be held at the UN Headquarters in NYC to negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons.

At the press conference, Shii stressed, “This UN meeting will be a historic event as its success will open the door to achieve a world without nuclear weapons.” He expressed his determination to do his best to help the antinuke conference succeed.

Citing the Japanese government’s stance opposing a Nuclear Weapons Convention, Shii said, “As the only A-bombed nation, this stance is unacceptable. The government should stand on the side of nations calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons.”

Shii will join the UN meeting which will begin on March 27 as a member of the UN NGO, the Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament. During the five-day assembly, he plans to meet other nations’ delegates attending the talks as well as ambassadors to UN and representatives of various international NGOs to ask for their cooperation to achieve a success in the NWC talks.

Traveling with Chair Shii, JCP Vice Chair Ogata Yasuo, JCP member of the House of Representatives Kasai Akira, and JCP International Commission Vice Chair Morihara Kimitoshi will leave for NYC on March 22.

The convocation of the anti-nuclear meeting was decided in the UN General Assembly resolution which was adopted on December 23, 2016 with overwhelming support. The resolution calls on all UN member states to participate in discussions on a NWC and says that the conference will be held with the participation and contribution of civil society representatives.

Past related articles:
> This week’s JCP international activities [February 16, 18 and 21, 2017]
> UNGA resolves to launch negotiations for NWC in March [December 25, 2016]