The Sunflower / The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation & Kyodo News Service & Vallarta Daily – 2017-12-06 23:04:21

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/10/27/national/three-atomic-bomb-survivors-will-attend-nobel-peace-prize-ceremony-december/#.WiGS_DdryUk

Grassroots Anti-nuclear Citizens’ Group to
Accept Nobel Peace Prize on December 10
The Sunflower / The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

(December 5, 2017) — Beatrice Fihn, Executive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), and Setsuko Thurlow, a survivor of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima and a tireless campaigner for the abolition of nuclear weapons, will accept the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the global campaign in Oslo on December 10. At least two other survivors of the 1945 atomic bombings are expected to attend.

The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation has been a Partner Organization in ICAN since its inception in 2007. Setsuko Thurlow is the recipient of NAPF’s 2015 Distinguished Peace Leadership Award and serves on the NAPF Advisory Council.

Three A-bomb Survivors to Attend
Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony in December
Kyodo News Service

GENEVA (December 4, 2017) — Three survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki will attend the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony in December, the recipient body said Thursday.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons won this year’s peace prize for efforts that led to the adoption in July of a landmark UN treaty outlawing nuclear weapons.

The three hibakusha, including Hiroshima survivor Setsuko Thurlow, will attend the Dec. 10 ceremony in Oslo along with people affected by nuclear tests and key ICAN members, the Geneva-based organization said.

Thurlow, an 85-year-old Canada-based advocate of stopping the proliferation of nuclear weapons, was 13 when the first US atomic bomb destroyed Hiroshima. She and ICAN chief Beatrice Fihn will jointly deliver a lecture and receive the award from the Norwegian Nobel Committee, ICAN said.

The Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo) will select two other Japan-based hibakusha to attend the ceremony.

“This year’s award conveys a message that the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which came into effect through appeals made by hibakusha, should be pushed forward,” Akira Kawasaki, a member of ICAN’s international steering group, said at a news conference in Hiroshima. “We want to strengthen our movement and urge all countries to sign and ratify the treaty.”

The treaty has been adopted by more than 100 UN members, but Japan and members of the world’s nuclear weapons club are not among them.

Kawasaki later met with Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui, who said he was grateful to the hibakusha for participating in the ceremony.Kawasaki told Matsui that at the beginning of next year, ICAN would be willing to organize a joint symposium with Hiroshima and Nagasaki to help spread understanding about the treaty.

Matsui responded, “I want to spread a tone that the treaty is not about deepening a divide” between nuclear states who are against it and nonnuclear states who support it.

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Mexico Ratifies Nuclear Ban Treaty
The Sunflower / Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

(December 5, 2017) — Mexico is the fourth country to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, as its Senate voted unanimously to approve Mexico’s participation in the treaty. Prohibitions in the treaty include developing, acquiring, storing, using or threatening to use any atomic explosive device or nuclear weapon of any kind.

Fernando Torres Graciano, president of the National Defense Commission, encouraged other countries to ratify the treaty as well. He said, “Instead of resistance to nuclear disarmament, governments should promote programs to address the most important problems in the world, such as poverty and hunger.”

In order for the treaty to enter into force, 50 countries must ratify the treaty.

Mexico’s Senate Approved
The Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
Vallarta Daily

(November 28, 2017) — Mexico’s Senate approved the prohibition of nuclear weapons, with which Mexico commits to take action against, such as the expulsion of the North Korean ambassador, Kim Hyong Gil.

The Senate called this treaty one of the most important votes in this legislature.

The commissions of External Relations and National Defense emphasized that nowadays there are 17,300 nuclear warheads in the hands of nine countries, the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India , Pakistan, Israel and North Korea.

With 80 votes in favor, zero against and zero abstentions, the plenary session approved the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, adopted by the UN on July 7, making Mexico the fourth country to join that mechanism.

Signatory nations commit to not develop, acquire, store, use or threaten to use nuclear weapons or other atomic explosive devices and will enter into force once 50 member countries of the UN have ratified the agreement.

On the rostrum, Senators Laura Angélica Rojas, Marcela Guerra and Alejandro Encinas affirmed that what has been approved is one of the most important treaties ratified by this legislature, because it commits Mexico to reject the proliferation of nuclear weapons, especially at a juncture where threats from countries such as North Korea can affect peace.

The president of the National Defense Commission, Fernando Torres Graciano, said that Mexico has stood out in international politics, by standing firm in its position to eradicate the arms race that threatens humanity.

“Instead of resistance to nuclear disarmament, governments should promote programs to address the most important problems in the world, such as poverty and hunger.”

In its Article 1, the Treaty establishes an express prohibition to develop, test, produce, manufacture, acquire, possess or store nuclear weapons and / or nuclear explosive devices.

It also prohibits the direct or indirect transfer of these weapons or artifacts, the threat of use, assistance, encouraging any activity of this type, and allowing the installation and deployment of nuclear weapons in their territory or in any place under its jurisdiction or control.

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