United Nations to Convene First-Ever International Meeting on Victim Assistance and Environmental Remediation
The 2025 resolution establishing the meeting’s modalities received 170 votes in favor from UN Member States, in an unprecedented show of support for nuclear justice.
NEW YORK, NY, August 27, 2026 – The United Nations (UN) will convene the first International Meeting on Victim Assistance and Environmental Remediation on September 1, 2026, at the UN Headquarters in New York.
The meeting aims to address the legacy of nuclear weapons by exploring the needs and mechanisms for victim assistance and environmental remediation of UN member states affected by nuclear weapons. It will be open to Member States, observer States, observers of the UN General Assembly, UN agencies, and civil society representatives, including scientists, academia, and representatives of communities affected by the use, production, and testing of nuclear weapons.
In addition to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, over 2,000 nuclear explosions have been detonated worldwide. Their environmental and humanitarian consequences have transcended national borders and continue to cause intergenerational harm. This meeting will provide a forum for UN Member States and affected communities to share their experiences and examine how victim assistance and environmental remediation should be addressed.
High-level opening statements will include remarks from Masako Wada, a Nagasaki hibakusha and Assistant Secretary General of Nihon Hidankyo, which received the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize; and Karipbek Kuyukov, a Kazakh artist and anti-nuclear activist born without arms as a result of radiation exposure from Soviet nuclear testing.
The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF) is serving as a civil society coordinator for this meeting.
Ivana Nikolić Hughes, President of NAPF, shares, “We are looking forward to this historic meeting as an opportunity for the international community to come together to advance victim assistance and environmental remediation for so many communities that have suffered the devastation brought by the use, testing, and development of nuclear weapons. The hibakusha and other affected community members can teach us not only how to right historical wrongs, but how to make a better, more peaceful world.”
The meeting was requested by UN General Assembly Resolution 79/60, introduced by the Republics of Kazakhstan and Kiribati and co-sponsored by a broad cross-regional group of states. Kazakhstan was subjected to extensive Soviet nuclear testing, while the United States and United Kingdom conducted nuclear tests in Kiribati. Resolution 80/56, adopted in December 2025, established the meeting’s format and participation procedures.
Recommendations raised during the meeting will help inform the outcome document distributed afterward by the UN Secretary-General.
The meeting will take place from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time in the Economic and Social Council Chamber at UN Headquarters.
Event information and documents are available through the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs and the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.
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About the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
Founded in 1982, the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that educates and advocates for a just and peaceful world free of nuclear weapons. Based in Santa Barbara and New York, NAPF holds consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council and is recognized by the United Nations as a Peace Messenger Organization.
