International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons

International Conference on the Prevention of Nuclear Catastrophe

Last month, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons was launched in Melbourne, Australia. The campaign calls for a Nuclear Weapons Convention to outlaw nuclear weapons worldwide, much like the international conventions on biological and chemical weapons.

In July 1996, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared that "the threat or use of nuclear weapons would generally be contrary to the rules of international law applicable in armed conflict, and in particular the principles and rules of humanitarian law."

As with the convention on anti-personnel landmines, public involvement could provide the momentum to make the Nuclear Weapons Convention a reality.

Christopher Weeramantry, a former judge of the International Court of Justice who took part in its landmark 1996 advisory opinion on nuclear weapons, has written that, "if we want more than the kind of snail's pace action of the past 50 years, we need a public campaign worldwide that is vocal enough to force swift action". www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/Statements