International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons/Marlena Koenig
26 September is the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. On the occasion of the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons on 26 September, Secretary-General António Guterres delivered a message in which he noted that geopolitical mistrust and competition have raised nuclear risks to the level of the cold war, and that a peaceful future depends on ending nuclear threats.
He warned that decades of hard-won progress in preventing the use, proliferation and testing of nuclear weapons were being lost.
Highest disarmament priority
Achieving global nuclear disarmament is the highest disarmament priority of the United Nations. This was the subject of a resolution of the General Assembly in 1946. The resolution established the Atomic Energy Commission, which was mandated to make concrete recommendations on the control of nuclear energy and the elimination of nuclear weapons and all other major weapons capable of mass destruction.
The Atomic Energy Commission was dissolved in 1952. Since then, the United Nations has been at the forefront of a series of major diplomatic efforts to advance nuclear disarmament. In 1959, the General Assembly endorsed the goal of general and complete disarmament. In 1978, the first special session of the General Assembly devoted to disarmament further recognized that nuclear disarmament should be a priority objective in the field of disarmament. Successive UN Secretaries-General have actively promoted the implementation of this goal.
Progress on nuclear disarmament has been slow
However, there are still 12,512 nuclear weapons in the world today. Countries that possess these weapons have well-funded long-term plans to modernize their nuclear arsenals. More than half of the world's population still lives in countries that possess nuclear weapons or are members of nuclear alliances.
Although the number of nuclear weapons deployed since the peak of the cold war has decreased markedly, none of them have been physically eliminated under the provisions of any treaty, nor are there any ongoing nuclear disarmament negotiations.
At the same time, the doctrine of nuclear deterrence continues to pervade the security policies of all nuclear-weapon states and many of their allies. The international arms control framework has contributed to international security since the cold war, curbed the use of nuclear weapons and promoted nuclear disarmament, but has come under increasing pressure.
On August 2, 2019, the United States withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Missile Treaty, marking the end of the treaty, after the United States and Russia pledged to eliminate all such nuclear missiles. In addition, Russia announced on February 21, 2023 that it would suspend the implementation of the New START Treaty.
CND/Henry Kenyon
The nuclear disarmament campaign aims to abolish nuclear weapons and create real security for future generations.
Let nuclear weapons be history
The United Nations General Assembly designated 26 September as the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons to raise public awareness of the threat posed by nuclear weapons to humanity and the need for their total elimination.
On this important international day, we reaffirm our commitment to building a nuclear-weapon-free world and eliminating the humanitarian catastrophe caused by the use of nuclear weapons.
"This means that nuclear-weapon states should take the lead in fulfilling their disarmament obligations and commit themselves not to use nuclear weapons under any circumstances," he said.
"This implies the need to strengthen the nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime, including through the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
"This means that all States that have not yet ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty should do so without delay, and that nuclear-weapon States should ensure a moratorium on all nuclear testing."
"This means taking into account the evolving nuclear order, addressing the blurring of the lines between strategic and conventional weapons, and the relationship with emerging technologies."
"Above all, it means using permanent tools such as dialogue, diplomacy and negotiation to reduce tensions and end the nuclear threat."
In July, he issued a policy brief entitled "A New Agenda for Peace," calling on Member States to renew their urgent commitment to a nuclear-weapon-free world and strengthen global norms prohibiting the use and proliferation of nuclear weapons, Guterres said.
"The only way to eliminate nuclear dangers is to eliminate nuclear weapons," he said. Let us work together to eliminate these destructive devices once and for all and make them history. ”