September 26 is the International Day for Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons and NAPF was proud to attend a High-Level Plenary Meeting to commemorate and promote this important day and to deliver a statement as one of only three NGOs to represent civil society. Our President Ivana Nikolić Hughes delivered the statement at the end of the meeting’s morning session in the UN Trusteeship Council chamber in the New York UN Headquarters during the General Assembly.
We were inspired by the statements made by the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres – a fierce advocate for nuclear disarmament, as well as the excellent statements by the UN General Assembly President, Csaba Korosi, the President of the Republic of Kiribati, Taneti Maamau, and representatives of many of the states in attendance, including Costa Rica, Mexico, Austria, South Africa, and more, as well as ICRC and NGO colleagues Molly McGinty from IPPNW and Patrick Karakezi from Restless Development. We were heartened by the many calls for states to sign and/or ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons – our path forward to a world free of nuclear weapons.