Japan Press Weekly

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2016 August 3 - 9 TOP3 [PEACE]

Antinuke ‘Declaration’ directly handed to UN Open-Ended Working Group

The 2016 World Conference against A & H Bombs, after moving its venue to the other A-bombed city of Nagasaki, held an “international exchange forum” on August 8 and reported that copies of the Declaration adopted by the international antinuke meeting in Hiroshima were handed over to the UN Open-Ended Working Group on Nuclear Disarmament (OEWG) currently meeting in Geneva in Switzerland.

According to Tsuchida Yayoi, vice secretary general of the Japan Council against A & H Bombs (Japan Gensuikyo), Alyn Ware of UNFOLD ZERO who works as an NGO member in the OEWG handed a copy of the Declaration attached with a letter from the Organizing Committee of the 2016 World Conference against A & H Bombs directly to the OEWG chairman. In his own speech in an OEWG meeting, Ware referred to the Declaration and distributed it to all delegations present.

Tsuchida said, “Hearing that the call of the World Conference for the start of NWC negotiations was conveyed to the OEWG, I feel very glad.”

The international exchange forum focused on grassroots movements and global solidarity for the total abolition of nuclear weapons. Japanese grassroots activists and overseas delegates exchanged their views on and aspirations for further advancement of their movements. Nagasaki City Mayor Taue Tomihisa gave an address of welcome on behalf of the 430,000 Nagasaki City citizens.

Joseph Gerson of the American Friends Service Committee looked back to the 1950s and said that hundreds of millions of signatures in the Stockholm Appeal Campaign successfully stopped the U.S. from using a nuclear weapon in the Korean War. He emphasized, “So, the International Signature Campaign in Support of the Appeal of the Hibakusha will certainly play an important role in the OEWG and the UN General Assembly.”

Carol Turner of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) talked about the British movement opposing the renewal of the stationing in Britain of the Trident submarine which deploys nuclear missiles.

Selma Oostwaard of PAX from the Netherlands reported on the PAX effort putting pressure on the government so that Holland can join in the global movement seeking to achieve a world without nuclear weapons.

Lee Jun-Kyu from South Korea, research associate at University of North Korean Studies, reported on the nuclear weapons development program in North Korea.