The United Nations General Assembly has formally adopted the resolution to proceed with negotiations to Ban Nuclear Weapons!
The resolution was adopted by a large majority, with 113 UN member states voting in favour, 35 voting against and 13 abstaining. Several governments even switched to ‘Yes’ from the October vote.
This was largely due to the efforts of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear weapons (ICAN) who encouraged some hesitant governments to take this positive stand.
The New Zealand government has been an active supporter of this proposal through our Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCulley and effective Disarmament Ambassador Dell Higgie.
There are many peace groups in New Zealand who continue to lobby government to promote this anti-nuclear stance and to educate people about the horrific consequences of nuclear weapons and the need to eliminate them.
Laurie Ross of Nuclear Free New Zealand Peacemaking says ‘New Zealand is a natural leader in nuclear disarmament as we declared a Nuclear Free Zone in 1987. So we are thrilled to see that the majority of governments of the world are uniting to prohibit these indiscriminate weapons of mass destruction.’
The vote took place late at night on Friday before the Christmas holiday and many government missions were already closed for the holidays. Due to the UN’s bureaucratic processes, as well as attempts by the United States to withdraw funding for the resolution, the vote was much later than expected. But fortunately there were still sufficient numbers to ensure the resolution was passed as the momentum that has built up over the last year is unstoppable. The path is now clear for negotiations to commence in March 2017 on the Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty!
And if any nuclear-armed country, ignores such a treaty ?
Some countries, well one or two especially, see themselves as ‘exceptional’.
Those two countries ( the smaller of which won’t admit having nuke warheads ) are blatant liars, won’t allow inspection of installations and yet badger Iran without mercy and enact sanctions.
The rogue states will have to be isolated in spite of their control world money.
BRICS has to be a new force in the deal. Banning all nuclear eventually.
Nuclear is the most destructive and expensive tool placed in the hands of megalomaniacs and psychopathic leaders to chaos.
Nuclear power is the most expensive deal we have ever had for energy with a crippling legacy for many generations to come.
Wow, progress!
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