international

25MAY17.- Scientists for Global Responsibility (SGR) warmly welcomes the publication yesterday of a draft UN treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons.

19MAY17.- Stretching thousands of kilometres, across mountains and deserts, the Silk Road holds a special place in history. Traversed by Marco Polo and named after one of its most precious goods, the trade route facilitated an exchange of ideas, technology, and animals between East and West, Asia, Europe and Africa. Though its relevance waned with the opening of sea routes between Asia and Europe, the rebirth of China’s economic power and ambitions over the last decade has rejuvenated the once dormant route.

09MAY17.- Thousands of Israelis and Palestinians participated in the alternative memorial ceremony organized annually by Combatants for Peace and the Bereaved Parents Circle, two distinguished Israeli-Palestinian peace movements, to pay tribute to the fallen on both sides of this bloody conflict on the eve of Israel’s official Day of Remembrance. This year, in the wake of Israel’s refusal to issue permits to the Palestinian participants, the ceremony took place in Tel Aviv and was broadcast live to large audiences in the West Bank town of Beit Jala as well as in cities across the world.

12ABR17.- We must not conceal from ourselves that no improvement in the present depressing situation is possible without a severe struggle; for the handful of those who are really determined to do something is minute in comparison with the mass of the lukewarm and the misguided. And those who have an interest in keeping the machinery of war going are a very powerful body; they will stop at nothing to make public opinion subservient to their murderous ends. —Albert Einstein, 1934

03ABR17.- This week, negotiations on a treaty to ban nuclear weapons in international law began in New York. This first negotiation session revealed that the more than 132 countries participating share a vision for a world without nuclear weapons. And while some disagreement is expected, there was broad agreement among many countries on most elements of the proposed treaty.

30MAR17.- Today we begin negotiations of a treaty banning nuclear weapons. It took incredible determination, creativity, and courage to get here. We have seen decades of activism against the bomb. Endless engagement with nuclear-armed states. The collection of baby teeth. Millions of people marching in the streets.

22MAY17.- In Moscow earlier this week I mentioned to a Russian friend that racists in my town in Virginia were chanting fascist and confederate slogans plus “Russia is our friend!” He replied: “But we never had slavery; we had serfdom.” He didn’t grasp why Russia was being grouped together with slavery.

16MAY17.- On May 12, 2017, the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO), representing close to one million workers, endorsed a full boycott of Israel to achieve Palestinian rights under international law. LO is the largest and most influential umbrella organization of labor unions in Norway.

08MAY17.- Another cycle of conferences started this week in Vienna to culminate in a conference to review the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 2020. States Parties and civil-society organisations have exchanged views in the general debate and in a number of side events. At an International Peace Bureau event on “NATO, Nuclear Weapons and the Ban Treaty?” Otto Jäckel, from the International Association of Lawyers against Nuclear Arms (IALANA) Germany, addressed security concerns and North Korea’s motivations for developing its nuclear weapons. We republish here with kind permission of the author.

31MAR17.- More than 120 countries have been participating in talks to negotiate a treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons since Monday March 27th in the UN headquarters in New York. While the nuclear weapons states and their allies are not in the room, the proponents of the ban treaty are counting on the delegitimisation effects of the treaty to drive the world toward the total elimination of nuclear weapons.

24MAR17 – LONDON – UNITED KINGDOM.- 75% of UK adults think the British Government should be represented at nuclear disarmament talks due to begin at the United Nations next week. Only 9% said the Government should not attend and 16% were undecided.