Dear NAPF Community,

In New York City, the changing leaves are falling with the wind, lining the park paths, and reminding us that life is not static, nor here forever. They now dazzle with color, from yellows, to oranges, to reds, to greens, and yet soon, they will be no more. Can we shed our divisions, conflicts, wars, pain, devastation, and suffering, like the falling leaves? Can we regrow new modes of thinking, new attitudes, new policies that set our planet on a better path than where we are today? This will surely take us longer than the mere months it will take the trees to come back to life. But it must be done. We owe our children and grandchildren a better world.

At NAPF, a couple of new leaves of hope are growing. The first is the adoption of a new resolution in the United Nations on nuclear justice, which took place on Friday, October 27. This resolution – brought forward by the Republics of Kazakhstan and Kiribati, with support from the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and valiant efforts of our Policy and Advocacy Coordinator Christian Ciobanu, is a game-changing achievement for addressing the legacy of nuclear weapons use and testing through victim assistance and environmental remediation. Read more about the resolution and its relationship to nuclear abolition in this article in The Nation and about the stunning vote (171 votes in favor!) HERE. This ongoing project will continue to be a key element of our work, in and outside of the context of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, whose promotion and implementation we remain deeply committed to.

A second growing leaf of hope was our 37th Evening for Peace, where we honored Professor Jeffrey Sachs. Rather than a celebration of peace, the evening represented the deepest expression of our yearning for peace, with Prof. Sachs reminding us that, as President Kennedy put it in his Commencement Address at American University, “We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal.” The event allowed our community to come together and imagine a better world.

Please see more below for our other updates and activities. As we continue to educate and advocate for a peaceful world, we need your help. We simply cannot do this work without your support. I hope that you will join us on this journey.

With warmest gratitude,

Ivana