Support Basel Peace Office to Prevent Nuclear War,
Which Is Much Better than Trying to Survive One
Basel Peace Office
BASEL (December 13, 2024) — Last week, Reuters reported that Switzerland plans to update its network of ageing nuclear shelters, which they say “are increasingly seen as an asset at a time of greater global uncertainty, notably since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
This is good news for the nuclear bunker industry. Bunker Swiss, for example, is capitalising on this move by increasing its advertising for bunker-building and sales with the expectation of considerable returns.
In a news blog The nuclear arms race: A worrying reality in 2024 Bunker Swiss highlights the increasing possibilities of a nuclear war and promotes its services with reassuring language “We understand the importance of security in an uncertain world. Our bunker kits offer a reliable and customizable solution for those who want to prepare for potential threats. Explore our options to ensure your safety and that of your loved ones.”‘
Nuclear War: Survival or Prevention?
The notion that it is possible to survive a nuclear war — a notion perpetuated by nuclear bunker building programs — is self-centered, erroneous and dangerous.
Can one be so callous as to plan for one’s own survival, when the vast majority of humanity who don’t have fallout bunkers will be incinerated in a nuclear war? And would survival be possible even in a bunker? At some stage, you would have to emerge into a radiated, destroyed world to try to replenish food and oxygen.
Most importantly, focusing on the fantasy of surviving a nuclear war takes one’s attention off the most important task today — to prevent such a catastrophe.
Basel Peace Office is leading global efforts to prevent nuclear war. Please support us to strengthen this work.
Personal nuclear bunkers go on sale in South Korea.
Our Work Is Nuclear war prevention — coalition building, political action and the law
Basel Peace Office is using three key tools to help prevent nuclear war — coalition building, political action and the law.
We are an active member of the Abolition 2000 global network to eliminate nuclear weapons and its working group on nuclear risk-reduction. And we co-founded and host NoFirstUse Global, the global network promoting the adoption of policies by the nuclear-armed and allied states never to launch a nuclear war.
Building cooperation through these coalitions strengthens our political action, which includes advocacy at the United Nations, at Conferences of States Parties to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, in parliaments and directly to governments.
The legal obligation to end the threat of nuclear weapons
Ending the threat to use nuclear weapons is not only good policy — it is an obligation under international law applicable to all States.
The International Court of Justice has affirmed that the threat or use of nuclear weapons is generally illegal under the laws of warfare (international humanitarian law and the law of peace and security). And the UN Human Rights Committee has affirmed that the threat or use of nuclear weapons is incompatible with the Right to Life under Article 6 of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights.
Basel Peace Office uses this law in our advocacy, including through engagement in the reviews by the UN Human Rights Council of implementation of the human rights obligations of nuclear armed and allied countries. (See Basel Peace Office, nuclear weapons and the UN human rights bodies).
For more information about Basel Peace Office work during 2024, please see the BPO Director’s Annual Report.
Copyright © 2024 Basel Peace Office, All rights reserved.
Basel Peace Office, C/o Swisspeace, K-Haus, Kasernenstrasse 8, Basel 4058, Switzerland
