Dear ICAN supporters
Welcome to your monthly e-bulletin from ICAN Australia, updating you on the progress we're making in our world-wide campaign to abolish nuclear weapons and how you can help.

This month: ICAN, with other anti-nuclear organisations, prepares for this month's NPT Preparatory Committee ("PrepCom") - a major UN meeting on nuclear non-proliferation, and ICAN events to attend.

ICAN act: things to do today

ICAN GIVE! Make a donation to ICAN Australia and it will be doubled! 
For a limited time, every dollar you donate to ICAN Australia will be matched, thanks to a generous challenge grant from the Poola Foundation. 

Please consider making a donation today to help us meet this challenge so we can continue to campaign on this vital issue. Thanks to the many supporters who have already donated!
Donate at www.icanw.org/donate.

Book now for SOLDIERS FOR PEACE: Melbourne 14 April or Perth 8 May
SOLDIERS FOR PEACE is a feature documentary, winning Best Feature Film and Best Documentary Feature Film at the Monaco International Film Festival.

An inspiring journey across 5 continents and 14 countries, it shows the extraordinary peace efforts of ordinary individuals across the globe. Well worth attending and inviting your friends. View this excellent film - and support ICAN - in high quality and comfort:

MELBOURNE: ACMI, in Federation Square. 7.15pm, 14 April. Tickets $20/$15 online at www.acmi.net.au or at the door.

PERTH: The Astor Cinema, 659 Beaufort St , Mt Lawley. Friday 8 May, 7.30pm. Wine and nibbles from 6.45pm. Buy now through www.moshtix.com.au or at the door.

Melbourne: Scarred Lands & Wounded lives screening: Mordialloc, Saturday 18 April 2pm
The Union of Australian Women are showing ‘Scarred Lands and Wounded Lives', an excellent documentary on the environmental effects of nuclear and other war preparations; together with David Bradbury 's "All that Glitters is not Gold" - a short video on the hazards of uranium mining.

ICAN Board member and  Deputy Chair of the International Physicians to Prevent Nuclear War, Dr Ruth Mitchell, will speak. At Mordialloc Neighbourhood House, 457 Main St Mordialloc.

Sign this petition for a nuclear weapons free world

Japanese anti-nuclear organisation Gensuikyo have initiated this excellent petition in the lead up to next year's major  international meeting for the nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty - please take the time to sign it! Just click 'Please Sign!' or even better, print out the petition and gather a page of signatures: www.antiatom.org/GSKY/en/index.html

Lobby the US Congress for disarmament

In the US, the Campaign for a Nuclear Free world is asking supporters to lobby the US congress to support President Obama's disarmament initiatives. 

ICAN news

ICAN coordinates Canberra meetings before PrepCom

A diverse group of non-government organisations travelled to Canberra last week to take part in consultations with advisors from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

These consultations, coordinated by ICAN, were to provide NGO input into the Non-Proliferation Treaty PrepCom meeting in New York in early May.

Representatives also had the opportunity to meet with advisors from the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament.

Most NGOs indicated strong support for focusing on the Nuclear Weapons Convention, and pushed for this to be considered and responded to by both the Commission and the Government.

ICAN supporters prominent in Palm Sunday call for peace

Melbourne's annual Palm Sunday peace rally was chaired by ICAN Outreach Coordinator Jessica Morrison and addressed by ICAN Board Member Dr Ruth Mitchell.

In Sydney, ICAN Board member Dr Sue Wareham spoke to the Parramatta peace rally.

For photos and further details of both events see www.icanw.org/news/palm-sunday-peace-rallies-2009. Photos of Palm Sunday in Melbourne include pictures of ICAN and our partners, and especially highlight the beautiful ICAN banners painted by young people last year.

ICAN addresses Parliament's nuclear inquiry. 

Associate Professor Tilman Ruff was invited to join a round-table presentation to the Parliamentary Committee inquiring into Australia's nuclear treaties.

Parliamentarians from the governing ALP, the Coalition and the Greens, recognising the expertise of ICAN and its partner organisations, asked detailed questions of Tilman and other witnesses.

78 written submissions, with a wealth of information and views, are available for reading online - including ICAN's. The transcript of oral hearings will also be posted at www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/jsct/nuclearnon_proliferation/subs.htm

Welcome to new ICAN partners

ICAN welcomes the Australian Federation of University Women (AFUW); the Society of St Vincent de Paul, the International Association of Peace Messenger Cities, the Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement, the Association of Women Educators and the Network of Immigrant and Refugee Women of Australia Incorporated.

Nukes news

Nuclear headlines over the past month

Obama highlights nuclear abolition in major speech

President Obama has called for strong action against nuclear proliferation in a major speech in Prague on Sunday 4 April.

He has pledged to press the US Senate to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, to work towards a renewal of the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty with Russia, and to work towards a treaty ending production of fissile materials for weapons.

The US will also convene a global summit to prevent on nuclear security. Earlier last week, President Obama and Russia 's President Medvedev had agreed to renegotiate a treaty to reduce strategic arms by the end of 2009.
See BBC news story: news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7983963.stm

Rudd, Obama talks: disappoints on nuclear disarmament

Before leaving for the USA two weeks ago, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he would discuss cooperation on our "great shared challenges" including nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.

However, reports of the Rudd-Obama March meeting do not seem to reflect either this intention, or the ALP's pre-election promise to "drive the international agenda for a Nuclear Weapons Convention".

The PM's office referred us to the joint media interview with President Obama and Mr Rudd, after their meeting, but this contains no reference to nuclear issues. The Sydney Morning Herald's Jonathon Pearlman appears to be the only journalist to report that the topic was discussed.

Physicians world-wide urge to Obama, Medvedev to end nukes

Before US President Barack Obama's recent meeting with President Medvedev, more than 300 of the world's top physicians wrote calling to the US and Russian Presidents asking them to "end the nuclear weapons era once and for all."

Prominent Australians to sign included four Australians of the Year: Professors Fiona Stanley, Sir Gustav Nossal, Nobel laureate Peter Doherty and Ian Frazer. ICAN supporters Professor Ian Maddocks, Associate Professor Tilman Ruff, and Professor Fred Mendelsohn were also among the 22 Australian signatories.

Read the letter and signatories: www.ippnw.org/News/MedicalAppeal.htm

France to finally compensate nuclear test victims

The French Government will compensate victims of past nuclear tests and has earmarked an initial 10 million euros to do so, the Defence Minister has announced.

The French state had long refused to officially recognise a link between its testing of nuclear bombs, which ended in 1996, and health complaints reported by both military and civilian staff involved in the tests.

France tested nuclear weapons in Algeria between 1960 and 1966, then in French Polynesia in the Pacific Ocean between 1966 and 1996. It conducted a total of 210 tests.
www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/03/24/2525030.htm
The announcement came just before court cases began in Tahiti on 27 April for compensation of nuclear test victims.

WE CAN!

ICAN Australian Bulletin comes to you from the ICAN Australia team, sent the first week of each month, from:
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
G03 60 Leicester Street, Carlton, Victoria, Australia 3053
Phone: + 61 3 9347 4795
Fax: + 61 39347 4995
info@icanw.org

Sign or donate at www.icanw.org
Feedback or contributions to: info@icanw.org

7 April 2009