For a Nuclear Free, Peaceful, Just and Sustainable World
Declaration of the Conference International Planning Committee
New York, New York
April 30-May 1, 2010

Our world is facing crises on an unprecedented scale – global warming, poverty, war, hunger and disease – which both threaten the very future of life as we know it, and bring, on a daily basis, death and extreme sorrow and suffering to the majority of our people.

Despite the global economic crisis, we face a situation in which global military spending – money for killing – far outstrips all other spending, at the expense of addressing urgent human needs.  Arms races in many parts of the world are escalating. More and larger foreign military bases are being built and space is being used for war. NATO is being enlarged to dominate the world.  All life is threatened by tens of thousands of nuclear weapons that can destroy our planet hundreds of times over. Aggressive nuclear strategies remain the brutal reality:

  • Despite its non-proliferation diplomacy, the United States has reaffirmed the central role of nuclear weapons in its defense policy, as has Russia, and increased spending for its nuclear weapons programs to an all-time high;
  • All of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) nuclear weapon states – the U.S., Russia, U.K., France and China — are modernizing their nuclear arsenals;
  • While pledging to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in U.S. foreign and military policies, the Obama Administration has repeated its threats of first strike nuclear attacks first against North Korea and second, with Israel against Iran by reiterating that “all options are on the table;”
  • Dangerously since they are not signatories, India, Israel and Pakistan are not obligated under the NPT to abolish their nuclear weapons.
  • While Iran and North Korea’s nuclear programs are the focus of broad international condemnation, the world continues to turn a blind eye to Israel’s large, sophisticated nuclear arsenal.
  • The South Asian nuclear arms race continues unabated;

There is an urgent need for real change.

We share a vision of a world free from war and nuclear weapons, a world built on a foundation of global justice, supporting a sustainable environment. Our priority is to ensure genuine human security for all peoples.

This vision is realisable, but to achieve it requires concerted nonviolent and practical action by those who seek it. Popular pressure on the world’s political leaders will be required to move them to value human security over militarism and the war systems that are sources of their power and privilege.

Our responsibility is to identify those steps needed to achieve our vision and to discern the means to create the political will necessary to prevail.

To achieve a world free of nuclear weapons: Building on the groundswell of international public opinion, we call on all governments to begin negotiations on a Nuclear Weapons Convention to ban all nuclear weapons by 2020.

To achieve a world free of war: Seeking, as expressed in the UN Charter, to end the scourge of war that has blighted succeeding generations, we will work to end all military conflicts and support peaceful dialogue and conflict resolution based on international law. International conflicts must be prevented and solved through diplomacy:

  • We call for an end to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the withdrawal of all foreign troops from those regions.
  • We call on Israel to end its occupation of the Palestinian territories occupied since June 1967, to dismantle the settlements and to recognize the national rights of the Palestinian people.
  • We call on the U.S. to sign a peace treaty to finally end the Korean War, formalize diplomatic relations, lift sanctions and encourage meaningful exchange.
  • We call on the international community to normalize relations with Iran and North Korea.
  • We call for the blockade of Cuba to end.

We will work for the end of military alliances and the closing of all foreign military bases, to end the militarization of space, and to greatly reduce the world’s military spending. Torn by the deaths of countless thousands of people as a result of the arms trade, we call for that trade in death to be banned. Putting people first, we call on governments with militarized economies to begin industrial conversion programmes so that our resources and energy are organized to meet human needs, not to end human lives. Let goverment structures promote peace instead of war. With imagination and creativity we will build relations between all countries on the basis of equality and respect.

To achieve a world where our collective resources are managed and distributed to meet the needs of all peoples: We will work to transform the current social structures, so that people come before profit, and economic enterprises provide for genuine human security rather than imposing a tyranny of debt and deprivation. We are in solidarity with the indigenous people around the planet who are standing up for their rights.

To end the despoliation of our planet, the poisoning of our lands and water and the air we breathe: We will educate and organise to halt and reverse global warming. To create a sustainable future, we will work in our communities and nations to end the commodification of nature.  We will strive to establish a worldwide moratorium on uranium mining, which has taken a terrible toll in human lives, and to phase out nuclear power whose poisons persist for tens of thousands of years. We will promote sustainable, renewable energy production as an alternative to nuclear energy and a way to mitigate climate change and we encourage our governments to join the International Renewable Energy Agency. Protecting our environment is one of our greatest imperatives. We call on the major industrial powers to significantly address the existing and impending global climate crisis.

We welcome the increased international cooperation amongst our movements which has enabled the success of this conference and commit to the continuation of this international dialogue and coordination. To deepen the social involvement necessary to achieve our goals, we will work to include other civil society organisations – such as trade unions and faith groups – whose visions include a more peaceful and just society.

Martin Luther King observed that, “all too many people find themselves living amid a great period of social change, and yet they fail to develop the new attitudes, the new mental responses, that the new situation demands“ We are in a similar moment, a time of great dislocation and upheaval. We need a new conversation amongst ourselves about how to re-order our societies and economies if humanity is to survive and prosper. It is past time to kick the habit of looking to those in power to deliver the changes we so urgently need. A world-wide movement for peace and global justice in solidarity is our aim and our commitment.

Time is short – we must seize the moment!

1 May 2010

International Planning Committee: Ray Acheson – Reaching Critical Will; Colin Archer – International Peace Bureau; Reiner Braun – International Network of Engineers andScientists for Global Responsibility; Jackie Cabasso – Western States Legal Foundation, United for Peace and Justice; Arielle Dennis – Le Mouvement de la Paix;Bruce Gagnon – Global Network against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space;Joseph Gerson – American Friends Service Committee; Socorro Gomes – Centro Brasileiro de Solidariedade aos Povos e Luta pela Paz; Kate Hudson – Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament; Akira Kawasaki – Peace Boat; Hans Lammarent – Bombspotting; Margo LaZaro – Global Family; Thomas Magnusson – International Peace Bureau; Judith LeBlanc – Peace Action; Narae Lee – Peace Boat; Dominique Lalanne – Aboliton 2000; Henry Lowendorf – Greater New Haven Peace Council; Issam Makhoul – Emil Touma Institute for Palestinian and Israeli Studies; Al Marder – International Association of Peace Messenger Cities; George Martin – Peace Action; Kevin Martin – Peace Action; Alice Slater – Abolition 2000; Susi Snyder – Abolition 2000; Hiroshi Takakusaki – Gensuikyo; Yayoi Tsuchida – Gensuikyo; Pierre Villard – Le Mouvement de la Paix; Alyn Ware – Abolition 2000; Rick Wayman – Nuclear Age Peace Foundation; Dave Webb – Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament; Cheryl Wertz – Peace Action NYS