March 10, 2010

Dear Organization,

It is 40 years since the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty entered into force, but there are still more than 23,000 nuclear weapons in global arsenals, and nuclear proliferation remains a serious threat to the planet. This May governments have an important opportunity to take real action towards nuclear abolition, but they will only act if there is pressure from civil society and the public.

That is why we are writing to you today. We would like you to join us in calling on the 189 governments meeting in New York from 3 to 28 May for a major review of the NPT to agree to negotiate a legally binding Nuclear Weapons Convention. This is a proposed treaty to ban all nuclear weapons, and establish the system needed to achieve their prompt and verified elimination.

The last such review of the NPT took place in 2005, and nothing was achieved. If we mobilize now, we can ensure that this year's gathering is different. What would that involve? We have two months left to lobby our governments to back the growing worldwide push for a Nuclear Weapons Convention. It isn't long, but it's enough time to make a real difference if we all join forces.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) -- an umbrella campaign representing more than 200 organizations in 60 countries -- has produced a Global Action Agenda outlining what you can do to promote nuclear abolition over the next three months. We have also prepared a briefing paper -- available in English and Spanish -- on why a Nuclear Weapons Convention is the best path to zero. Please forward it to your government.

We also encourage you to support our letter-writing campaign. The ICAN website allows people to send letters to their country's ambassador to the United Nations in New York, calling on them the play a leading role in advancing a nuclear abolition treaty. We will print these letters and hand-deliver them to the ambassadors. In May, we will present the conference chair with thousands of signatures from our Global Petition for abolition.

Regardless of whether governments agree on a Nuclear Weapons Convention at the NPT review conference, we need to continue pushing for this objective. Anything short of a clear commitment to abolish nuclear weapons should not satisfy any of us. That is why groups around the globe are holding actions or events the weekend after the conference -- Saturday 5 June -- calling for negotiations to begin. You can register an action here.

In short, here is what we would like you to do over the next three months:

• Forward our briefing paper to government officials, diplomats and parliamentarians
• Encourage your members to take part in our letter-writing campaign
• Collect as many signatures as possible for the Global Petition for Nuclear Abolition
• Hold an action on 5 June, Nuclear Abolition Day, calling for an abolition treaty

Together we can build a powerful grassroots movement for nuclear abolition. Now is a critical juncture. Let's seize the opportunity.

Best wishes, 

The ICAN team