WILPF Brighton and Hove Press Release on the 5th anniversary of the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW)
Brighton and Hove branch members of the Women’s lnternational League for Peace and Freedom celebrate the 5th “Banniversary “ of the UN nuclear ban treaty becoming law.
This week Brighton and Hove women are highlighting the importance of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), on the 5th anniversary of its entry into legal force on 22 January 2021. This ground-breaking Treaty prohibits the use, possession, production and deployment of nuclear weapons and requires their verified elimination.
80 years after the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were incinerated by the first two nuclear bombs, 99 countries have signed the TPNW – over half the world. Brighton and Hove has joined hundreds of other cities worldwide, including Paris, Rome, New York, Washington DC, Sydney, Athens, Berlin, Oslo, Geneva and Vienna that have all signed up in support of the Treaty.
Brighton and Hove Council voted to support the Treaty in 2020 in response to local members of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) who urged them to join the Cities Appeal run by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017. See #ICANSAVE.
“I’m proud that Brighton and Hove showed its support early on and has declared that cities should never be nuclear targets,” said Ros Cook from WILPF. “WILPF calls on the UK government to sign the Treaty and stop spending billions of pounds on deadly weapons that threaten all life on Earth.”
The TPNW’s first review conference will be held at the United Nations at the end of 2026. It will be chaired by South Africa, which produced nuclear weapons during the Apartheid years. In 1991, after Nelson Mandela was freed, South Africa renounced its nuclear weapons. Having gained knowledge of how to dismantle the weapons and verify they had done so, South Africa has been a the forefront of regional and international security agreements to prevent nuclear war, including the humanitarian initiatives that led to the TPNW.
“If the government is committed to multilateral nuclear disarmament as it claims, then the Prime Minister should sign the TPNW this year” said Dr Rebecca Johnson, co-founder of ICAN. “The government needs to prioritise our real human security needs, such as local services, the NHS, and tackling climate breakdown. British nuclear scientists have important skills that should be devoted to nuclear security and verifying nuclear disarmament, not squandering expensive resources on more weapons of mass destruction.”
Useful Resources
Getting a local authority to support the Treaty
CND Article on the next steps for the UK on “Banniversary”
YouTube channel for ICAN in Action
WILPF.org.uk
