NAPF Activities at the UN General Assembly First Committee

The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation has actively engaged with young people on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation by providing them with opportunities to observe the UN First Committee and events on nuclear disarmament.

Engagement with Young People

To ensure that young people could actively monitor discussions in UNGA’s First Committee, the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation collaborated with Ban All Nukes Generation.  As part of this collaboration, NAPF accredited several young people and provided them with opportunities to monitor international discussions on the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons, alternative forums in the international disarmament machinery, and the WMDFZ in the Middle East.

In addition, the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation formed a relationship with Northeastern University to enable a young person to help the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and Ban All Nukes Generation in New York. The student, Ms. Christina Reynolds, a senior at Northeastern, has been actively monitoring the First Committee and assisting the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation with its events and presentations in New York.

Events

On October 22, the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Peace Boat, and Hibakusha Stories convened a side event entitled “ Different perspectives on nuclear disarmament: Hibakusha, Humanitarian, and the Youth.”  Ms. Setsuko Thurlow and Mr. Yasuaki Yamashita provided moving testimonies about the devastating impact of nuclear weapons in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Mr. Christian N. Ciobanu focused on Ban All Nuke Generation’s project in Oslo on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons. He explained to the audience that BANG brought 40 young people to Oslo during the Norwegian Conference on the Humanitarian Consequences of Nuclear Weapons. He also explained how this opportunity provided young activities to bolster the humanitarian initiative.

Finally, Mr. Clifton Truman Daniel, the grandson of US President Truman, focused on his personal conviction to support the nuclear disarmament movement.On October 27, Mr. Christian N. Ciobanu and Mr. Fabian Rutherford, Geneva Representative of the School of African and Oriental Studies’ Strategic Concept for Removal of Arms and Proliferation (SCRAP), organized a special presentation for students at Drew University on civil society’s perspectives on nuclear disarmament.

Mr. Ciobanu focused on the humanitarian initiative on nuclear weapons and the imperative need for the international community to immediately ban these nuclear weapons. Mr. Rutherford provided a general overview of the international disarmament machinery and information about SCRAP’s project to these young students.