nuclear-news

Churches give mixed report after Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty review conference

Majority puts new pressure on minority’s nuclear weapons, Ekklesia, By Jonathan Frerichs, 9 Jun 2010 Is it time to start work on banning nuclear weapons? “Yes” says a growing majority of governments and civil society groups. “No” insists a tiny nuclear-armed minority. “Premature” say some of their closest allies.That is the barest summary of what happened at the United Nations when 189 countries met recently on what to do about nuclear weapons. Churches seeking specific steps to stop nuclear arms shared long-standing disappointments – plus a few new grounds for hope – with many governments and most of the 120 civil society organisations in New York during May for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference.
A World Council of Churches (WCC) delegation met with a cross-section of the governments at the conference to promote first steps toward a legal ban, a critical set of 10-year-old arms control steps, the nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East, and other issues from six decades of ecumenical opposition to nuclear armaments.

The tiny minority of treaty states with nuclear weapons – the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom and France – showed little of the will that would be required to actually eliminate their arsenals and end their status as nuclear-weapon states……
In its final document, the NPT conference welcomed the establishment of new nuclear-weapon-free zones in Africa, which churches helped realise, and in Central Asia. Prior to the conference, the WCC presented church activities to a meeting of civil society groups and governments from five nuclear-weapon-free zones that cover the Southern Hemisphere and adjacent countries north of the equator.

Majority puts new pressure on minority’s nuclear weapons | Ekklesia

June 10, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear spin, nuclear weapons