In a historic move, the assembly of French Polynesia unanimously adopted a resolution on September 28th, supporting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), highlighting the region's history as the site of numerous French nuclear tests between 1966 and 1996. The resolution, led by representative Hinamoeura Morgant-Cross, emphasizes the TPNW as a humanitarian disarmament treaty and calls upon the French government to join it. This powerful call for justice and international recognition for the lasting effects of nuclear tests underscores French Polynesia's commitment to nuclear disarmament and its poignant plea for nuclear justice.

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Updated September 28 2023

The escalation of nuclear tensions in Korean peninsula has further intensified with North Korea enshrining nuclear weapons in its constitution in response to deepening nuclear cooperation between the United States, South Korea and Japan. North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, also said his country would accelerate production of nuclear weapons to deter the US. This follows threats earlier this week from South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol to destroy Kim’s regime if the North uses nuclear weapons.

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On September 26th 2023, Melissa Parke, the new Executive Director for the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons delivered the following statement to the High-level plenary meeting to commemorate and promote the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons:  

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Two more countries have taken action under the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), bringing the tally of signatories to 93 – close to half of all states in the world - and States Parties to 69. The foreign minister of the Bahamas inked the landmark accord, while Sri Lanka’s minister acceded to the treaty at a ceremony in New York on Tuesday 19 September during the annual United Nations leaders’ week.

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Executive Director

@MelissaParke01

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Executive Director

Location: Geneva, Switzerland

Language: English

@MelissaParke01

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On 29 August 2023, diplomats, the expert community, and humanitarians from Central Asia and beyond met in Astana, Kazakhstan on the International Day against Nuclear Tests for a regional conference on "Humanitarian Consequences of Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Central Asia."

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Charli Carpenter is Professor in the Department of Political Science and Legal Studies at University of Massachusetts-Amherst specializing in international law and human security, and Director of Human Security Lab, an interdisciplinary initiative focused on science in the human interest. Her teaching and research interests include the protection of civilians, laws of war, humanitarian affairs, and humanitarian disarmament. She has published three books and numerous journal articles, held fellowships at the Peace Research Institute of Frankfurt, Oakley Center, and Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, has served as a consultant for the UN, DoS, USAID, DOD, and human rights NGO community, is a bi-weekly columnist at World Politics Review, and regularly contributes to Foreign Policy and Foreign Affairs.

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Dr Laura Considine is an Associate Professor in International Politics at the University of Leeds and co-Director of the Centre for Global Security Challenges. Her current work focuses on conceptualizing nuclear weapons in international politics, feminist and everyday approaches to nuclear weapons and nuclear narratives. Her work has been published in International Affairs, International Theory, Review of International Studies and the European Journal of International Relations.

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Vincent Intondi is a Professor of History and Director of the Institute for Race, Justice, and Civic Engagement at Montgomery College in Takoma Park, Maryland. From 2009-2017, Intondi was Director of Research for American University’s Nuclear Studies Institute in Washington, DC. Prior to teaching at Montgomery College, Intondi was an Associate Professor of History at Seminole State College in Sanford, Florida. Intondi regularly works with organizations exploring ways to include more diverse voices in the nuclear disarmament movement. His research focuses on the intersection of race and nuclear weapons. He is the author of the books, African Americans Against the Bomb: Nuclear Weapons, Colonialism, and the Black Freedom Movement(Stanford University Press, 2015) and Saving the World from Nuclear War: The June 12, 1982, Disarmament Rally and Beyond(Johns Hopkins University Press, 2023).

Olamide Samuel is a Track II diplomat working on arms control, nuclear politics and international security. Olamide is the Special Envoy of the Executive Secretary of the African Commission on Nuclear Energy. He also leads the NPT Project at the European Leadership Network. He is also a Research Associate in Nuclear Politics at the University of Leicester, after several years as a Senior Teaching Fellow at SOAS University of London. While at SOAS, Olamide lectured in the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy, teaching MA courses on International Security, and Diplomatic Practice. In addition, Olamideled the university’s global nuclear disarmament programme, SCRAP Weapons, from 2019 to 2021. He led the programme’s efforts to strengthen arms control diplomacy at the United Nations and African Union.

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Dr. Marina Kostić Šulejić is a Research Fellow at the Institute of International Politics and Economics from Belgrade and Secretary General and Head of the Centre for Non-Proliferation, Arms Control and Disarmament of the Serbian based think-tank Professional Association of Security Sector (PASS), which is also a member of a European network of non-proliferation and disarmament think-tanks. Marina obtained her PhD in International and European Studies at the Faculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade, by defending a dissertation titled “The conceptions of world order in the security policies of the United States of America, the Russian Federation, and the European Union at the beginning of the 21st century.” She completed a two-year specialization in International Politics at the same Faculty, where she also graduated in International Affairs. During her studies, she was awarded two scholarships – by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Marina worked for several state institutions. On two occasions she was a mentor in the framework of the EU Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Internship programs(2022 and 2023), organized by PASS. Marina has published a dozen research papers dealing with international institutions and world order, strategic and nuclear arms control and non-proliferation, bilateral and regional relations in the Western Balkans, security issues in Serbia and its policy of military neutrality, as well as the EU enlargement policy. In 2022, Marinapublished a book titled “Strategic stability in a multipolar world”. She has participated in a number of national and international conferences, workshops and educational programs.

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Carolina Panico is a Doctoral Candidate in Politics and International Relations at the University of Auckland. Her research focuses on feminist poststructuralist interrogations of the global nuclear order. Carolina's Ph.D. project examines the emergence of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) with a specific focus on the contributions of small and middle-power states. Carolina is interested in feminist, poststructuralist, and postcolonial approaches to global politics, particularly international security, global governance, arms control and disarmament, and norm dynamics. She is a member of the Beyond Nuclear Deterrence Working Group, part of the Rethinking Deterrence Research Network, funded by the MacArthur Foundation and housed at Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

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Heba Taha is a scholar of Politics and International Relations. Her work lies at the intersection of political economy and security in the modern Middle East, particularly Israel/Palestine. Her doctoral work analyzes the role of Palestinians in Israeli capitalism, focusing on everyday encounters and non-conventional sites of contestation, such as high-tech firms and shopping centers. More recently, she is also researching nuclear histories and technologies in the Middle East, some of which has been published in Third World Quarterly, International Affairs, and Global Affairs. Her article on gender and visualization of the nuclear age in Egypt won the 2023 International Affairs Early Career Prize. She is also an Affiliated Scholar at the Center for International Studies (CERI) at Sciences Po, where she collaborates with the Nuclear Knowledges research collective.

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Dr Becky Alexis-Martin is an Associate Professor in Peace and International Development at the University of Bradford. Dr Becky Alexis-Martin is a pacifist academic. Her work explores nuclear warfare, social justice, humanitarian and environmental issues, and human rights. She has authored more than sixty-five news articles, book chapters, and peer-reviewed articles. Her first book, “Disarming Doomsday: The Human Impact of Nuclear Weapons Since Hiroshima”, critically considers the social, cultural, ​and spatial inequalities and harms perpetuated by nuclear warfare and was the recipient of the 2020 L.H.M. Ling Outstanding First Book Prize.

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What are the perspectives from African nations in taking leadership in the TPNW against nuclear weapons? How are Kirimati peoples being represented in support for TPNW processes? How are nuclear weapons represented in popular war simulation video games? These are just some of the questions addressed by researchers sponsored under the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons’ (ICAN) Critical Nuclear Weapons Scholarship Program.

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The unfortunate paralysis of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty’s 2023 Preparatory Committee demonstrated the importance of the upcoming 2nd Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in November to make progress towards nuclear disarmament.

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The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) is excited to announce that Melissa Parke, a former United Nations legal expert and Australian government minister, will be taking on the role of Executive Director on 1 September 2023. Ms Parke has over two decades of experience in the fields of international development, human rights, law, and politics, and has served as an ICAN Australia ambassador, in which capacity she has championed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) since 2017.

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ICAN campaigner Elisabeth Saar, from Germany, delivered ICAN’s statement to the Preparatory Committee for the 2026 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), focusing on nuclear sharing practices. Please find the full statement below. 

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This briefing paper aims to summarize key questions regarding the effectiveness of nuclear bunkers or fallout shelters in protecting life in the event of a nuclear weapon use or attack. This paper addresses critical questions about the safety and practicality of these shelters while highlighting the overwhelming risks of nuclear weapons. 

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On 27 July, the US Senate voted to expand the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) to include more people affected by US nuclear testing, including the first US nuclear test in New Mexico, as well as to include workers in the uranium mining industry after 1971. One week earlier, a new research study was released indicating that U.S. atmospheric nuclear testing in New Mexico and Nevada resulted in fallout across all 48 states, as well as Canada and Mexico. In New Mexico and elsewhere, the study revealed that areas with significant radioactive fallout were not covered by RECA, and indeed, some areas left out of assistance under the legislation received more fallout than those included

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ICAN and PAX published the new report, “Moving Away from Mass Destruction” today, listing financial institutions actively restricting investments in the companies producing nuclear weapons

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ICAN and PAX published the new report, “Moving Away from Mass Destruction” today, listing financial institutions actively restricting investments in the companies producing nuclear weapons. The report analyses the policies of these banks, pension funds, insurance companies and asset managers, and shows year-over-year growth in the number of investors avoiding the nuclear industry.

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Get up to speed with the recent Iran nuclear deal news here. Updated 25 July 2023.

Photo: U.S. State Department

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The leaders of NATO countries, meeting in Vilnius at a time of unprecedented nuclear risk, took no action to reduce nuclear dangers and, on the contrary, issued a communique continuing to support the use of nuclear weapons. The alliance pointed to the risks posed by Russia’s nuclear weapons while hailing its own nuclear deterrent and nuclear sharing arrangements. It also criticised the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the only area of progress on nuclear disarmament in decades, demonstrating its concern about the Treaty’s power to stigmatise and eliminate nuclear weapons. 

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The release of Christopher Nolan’s biopic about Robert J Oppenheimer - leader of the Manhattan project - is driving a lot of questions about nuclear weapons, who has them and how they (continue to) pose a global risk of catastrophe. Here are some key things you should know before going to see the film.

Looking for our action kit? Please click here. 

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The release of the Oppenheimer film, and the wave of (media) attention surrounding it, creates an opportunity to spark public attention on the risks of nuclear weapons and invite new audiences to get involved in the movement to abolish nuclear weapons. We can educate about the risks, and share a much-needed message of hope and resistance: Oppenheimer is about how nuclear weapons began, the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) is how we end them. That is why we have put together some resources for all ICAN campaigners - or anyone who is willing to take action- to use at local theatres around the world or to join the conversation online! 

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Two of the largest countries in the world by population, Brazil and Indonesia, will soon ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapon (TPNW), according to their respective governments. Both countries were among the first to sign the landmark United Nations accord in 2017, and their ratification processes are now nearing completion. Their inclusion among the treaty’s states parties will be an important boost to the new disarmament regime.

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Update 19 June 2023:

On 16 June, 2023, Vladimir Putin said Russia delivered its first tactical weapons to Belarus. While it is unclear if nuclear weapons were moved to Belarus, as experts are still debating the issue, any moves or threats to do so are a dangerous escalation. 

All nuclear deployments, incl. US warheads in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Türkiye, threaten peace and security. So simply condemning Russia’s “nuclear sharing” without taking any action won’t be enough. Stationing nuclear weapons and assisting with prohibited activities is banned by the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. All governments should condemn all nuclear sharing - not just by Russia - and join the TPNW, as the only treaty to explicitly outlaw this behaviour. 

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Hiroshima Prefecture and the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (“ICAN”), the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, will hold the Hiroshima-ICAN Academy on Nuclear Weapons and Global Security 2023. Through this program, we aim to nurture global leaders who can make concrete contributions towards a more peaceful and secure world.

Join us for this opportunity to meet and learn together with inspiring, diverse individuals from around the world!

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WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are warned that the following article contains names of deceased persons.

A delegation of Australian nuclear test survivors and their relatives is visiting the nation’s capital, Canberra, this week to urge the government to sign the landmark Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Adopted in 2017 with the backing of 122 countries, the United Nations agreement includes ground-breaking provisions to assist victims of past nuclear tests and take steps to remediate contaminated lands.

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Spending on nuclear weapons surged for the third year in a row in 2022, even as economies grappled with the pandemic’s after-shocks or climate-linked disasters.

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That is $157,664 spent per minute on nuclear arms in 2022, says report by International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

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ICAN’s new report “Wasted: 2022 Global Nuclear Weapons Spending” shows nine countries spent $82.9 billion on nuclear weapons, of which the private sector earned at least $29 billion in 2022. The United States spent more than all of the other nuclear armed states combined, $43.7 billion. Russia spent 22% of what the U.S. did, at $9.6 billion, and China spent just over a quarter of the U.S. total, at $11.7 billion.

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In its report "Wasted: 2022 Global Nuclear Weapons Spending" the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons shows in 2022, the year of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, nine nuclear-armed states spent $82.9 billion on their nuclear weapons, more than $157,000 per minute, an overall increase of $2.5 billion from 2021.

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Forty-five civil society organisations in Spain have come together to form a coalition with a single mission: to persuade the Spanish government to adhere to the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). The Alianza por el Desarme Nuclear (Alliance for Nuclear Disarmament), which has the backing of ICAN, was launched in Madrid on 23 May. It will work to raise public awareness of the treaty’s importance and lobby decision-makers to endorse it.

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Setsuko Thurlow was 13 when she experienced the atomic explosion in Hiroshima. Now 91 years old, she thinks it's important that the G7 Summit is being held in her home city, but is disappointed by how some world leaders have responded.

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The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, or ICAN, says a Group of Seven joint statement on nuclear disarmament fails to provide any concrete proposals to abolish nuclear weapons. It calls on countries to join the nuclear weapons ban treaty.

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In the event of a nuclear conflict involving Moscow, the presence of its nuclear weapons in the country would make us a target for other nuclear-armed states.

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Update 20 May 2023: the G7 leaders have just issued the final communique from their summit in Hiroshima. It claims they have “taken concrete steps to strengthen disarmament and non-proliferation efforts, towards the ultimate goal of a world without nuclear weapons with undiminished security for all” but it doesn’t say what these steps are. That’s because it can’t.

What we got from the leaders' discussion on nuclear weapons yesterday was a rehash of ideas and proposals that have failed to deliver progress over the past three decades. They did not announce anything new or concrete. They couldn't even bring themselves to follow the G20 and TPNW member states by condemning all nuclear threats. Instead they reserved their condemnation for Russia's and North Korea's threats, which, while justified, fails to acknowledge how the G7's own nuclear doctrines are based on the threat to use nuclear weapons and so contribute to the acute danger these weapons pose to everyone. 

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The G7 Summit has begun in Hiroshima, with nuclear weapons high on the agenda. All eyes are on the seven leaders gathered in the first city to be attacked with a nuclear weapon to see whether they will actually listen to the survivors of the atomic bombing, hibakusha, by committing to concrete actions on nuclear disarmament, or whether they will merely pay lip service to a world free of nuclear weapons.  

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Social media campaign toolkit for the #G7YouthVSNukes Day of Action on 20 May 2023

From May 19 - 21 2023, the leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) will convene in Hiroshima for their annual summit. The G7YouthVsNukes members who were part of the ICAN Hiroshima Youth Summit believe that the convening of the G7 Summit in a city that has first-hand experience of a nuclear weapons detonation is a unique opportunity to raise awareness of the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of these weapons and are calling for a global day of action on May 20th. This page contains some tools you can use to join them.  

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Up until the final days of World War II, the people of Hiroshima thought they were the lucky ones. The U.S. had begun carpet-bombing Japanese cities from March 1945, killing some 100,000 people in Tokyo over just one night. Hiroshima was Japan’s tenth biggest city at the time, yet it had not been targeted by the raids, despite far smaller places already having been obliterated.

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The venue of this year’s G7 summit is a powerful symbol. With nuclear tensions rising, the summit’s participants must recognize the catastrophic consequences of such weapons and take four steps to strengthen the global norm against their use.

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When choosing a location for the 2023 G7 Summit, Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida decided that Hiroshima was the best place to discuss international peace and nuclear disarmament.  Given the heightened nuclear risk, concrete steps towards nuclear disarmament must be a priority on this year’s agenda. As all seven states - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States - have nuclear weapons in their security policies (either as nuclear-armed states or as host or umbrella states), ICAN is presenting four clear demands to the G7 leaders meeting in Hiroshima on May 19-21:

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Acting Deputy Director

Location: Geneva, Switzerland

Language: English, Swedish

@dhogsta

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Programme Coordinator

Location: Utrecht, The Netherlands

Language: English 

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For the first time ever, heads of state from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan,the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as high level representatives from the European Union, the G7, will meet in Hiroshima, Japan. This Briefing Paper sets out the background of this meeting as well as four concrete demands for the summit.

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At a diplomatic forum in Qatar this week, high-level officials representing 20 Arab League states exchanged views on recent developments in the field of disarmament and non-proliferation, with a focus on the Middle East region. One topic of discussion was the landmark Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which the Arab League regards as “an important addition to the global nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime”.

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Alcuni membri di Parlamenti dei Paesi del G7 hanno esortato i loro leader a intraprendere azioni concrete sul disarmo nucleare, in occasione del vertice che si terrà a Hiroshima dal 19 al 21 maggio prossimi. L'impegno è stato preso a seguito della partecipazione al Forum dei Parlamentari del G7 per l'eliminazione delle armi nucleari a Tokyo e a Hiroshima, dove hanno incontrato i sopravvissuti al primo attacco atomico della storia che nel 1945 uccise 140.000 persone e cancellò l'intera città. Il Forum è stato organizzato dalla Campagna internazionale per l'abolizione delle armi nucleari (ICAN) e si è concluso con una dichiarazione collettiva dei rappresentanti politici. 

(MPs from G7 countries have urged their leaders to take concrete actions on nuclear disarmament at their summit to be held in Hiroshima from 19 to 21 May. The commitment was made following participation in the G7 Parliamentarians' Forum on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons in Tokyo and Hiroshima where they met survivors of the first atomic attack in history in 1945 which killed 140,000 people and wiped out the entire city. The Forum was organised by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and concluded with a collective statement by political representatives.)

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Ahead of the G7 Leaders’ Summit taking place in Hiroshima in May, ICAN convened the G7 Parliamentarian Forum for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons in Tokyo and Hiroshima. The adopted statement urges the G7 governments to recognize the humanitarian consequences of the use of nuclear weapons, condemn threats to use nuclear weapons and to recognise the TPNW as a the comprehensive and effective legal tool for the abolition of nuclear weapons. See the full statement and list of participants below.

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Ahead of the G7 Leaders’ Summit taking place in Hiroshima in May, ICAN convened G7 parliamentarians in Tokyo and Hiroshima for a three day Forum on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. The adopted statement urges the G7 governments to recognize the humanitarian consequences of the use of nuclear weapons, condemn threats to use nuclear weapons, and discuss ways to promote their total elimination. They recognised the TPNW as the comprehensive and effective legal tool to do so.

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In the Washington Declaration issued by South Korea and the US, the two countries have agreed to increase their cooperation on the planning for the use of nuclear weapons in the region. In announcing the agreement, President Biden threatened to end the North Korean regime should it use nuclear weapons.

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On 27 April 2023, the delegates of the Hiroshima G7 Youth Summit have presented their joint statement and requests of the G7 leaders for the upcoming Summit. Read the statement in full below. 

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The Hiroshima G7 Youth Summit has started on the Hiroshima University Campus. For the next three days 50 young people, mostly from G7 countries, will discuss with and hear from experts on nuclear disarmament, meet with survivors, visit significant locations in Hiroshima, connect with each other and develop joint recommendations to the G7 leaders for real, and urgently needed, action to eliminate nuclear weapons. 

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The G7 Parliamentarian Forum for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons will take place in Tokyo and Hiroshima from April 28 to April 30, 2023. Parliamentarians from G7 countries will convene to recognize the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons, condemn threats to use them, and discuss ways to eliminate them altogether through the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).  As representatives of the G7 states, the participating parliamentarians acknowledge their special responsibility for promoting the abolition of nuclear weapons and fostering political circumstances for nuclear disarmament policies.

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The Communiqué released on 18 April 2023 following the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting in Nagano, Japan failed to present any new or concrete ideas for moving towards the elimination of nuclear weapons. When the G7 leaders meet in Hiroshima next month, they must do better.

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In advance of next month's Hiroshima G7 Summit, civil society organisations met with Japanese Prime Minister Kishida to encourage G7 leaders not to squander this once in a lifetime opportunity, and to use the summit to condemn all nuclear weapon threats and act for a nuclear weapons free world. This was the first time nuclear disarmament was included in the c7 recommendations. 

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In 2022, ICAN announced the creation of a new action fund to support ICAN's partners efforts to carry out more direct actions, visual stunts and disrupt the status quo on nuclear weapons. Thanks to generous online donors from around the world, the fund raised CHF 37'833 and applications for the ICAN Rapid Action Fund are now open to all ICAN partners.  

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Today’s publication of the Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor 2022 from ICAN's partner Norwegian People’s Aid shows the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) made significant progress in 2022. The report found that, in the light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, overt nuclear threats and the highest risk of nuclear weapon use since at least the early 1980s, the number of new TPNW signatories and parties accelerated. On a less positive note, the report shows the report also shows that the number of nuclear weapons available for use globally increased in 2022, as did their destructive power. 

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Russian President Vladimir Putin is upping the ante in his game of nuclear blackmail with the West by promising to place missiles in Belarus. 

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Russian President Vladimir Putin is sending tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus. Putin says the move is a warning to the West as it steps up military support for Ukraine. He maintains that Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko has been asking for nuclear weapons to be stationed there for years. Belarus borders Ukraine as well as NATO members Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.

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The 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) was carefully crafted to reinforce, complement, and build on the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which obligates its parties to negotiate further legal measures to achieve nuclear disarmament. Both treaties are an integral and permanent part of the international nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament architecture, and have the same goal at their core: a nuclear-weapon-free world.

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At the ICAN Act on It Forum in Oslo, experts, campaigners and friends from all around the world have come together for the past two days to learn and exchange more about the arguments and tools that we can use to advocate for nuclear disarmament and the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in nuclear-weapons-complicit states. 

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Thanks to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, a new group of prominent scientists from around the world will now study key issues to advance nuclear disarmament and better understand nuclear weapons risks and their consequences. 

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The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons is issuing a call for proposals to conduct research on nuclear weapons with a view to support nuclear disarmament activism and support underfunded research on nuclear disarmament. ICAN will consider a broad range of research topics, including but not limited to: normative approaches to nuclear weapons, including legal approaches such as the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons; nuclear weapons and injustice; nuclear weapons and production of knowledge and the political economy of nuclear weapons.

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This briefing paper provides an overview of the effects of nuclear weapons on the environment as well their exacerbated impacts as a result of the climate crisis. This paper provides recommendations for environmental remediation based on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).

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2022 reminded the world that nuclear weapons are still a terrifying reality. Russia’s threats to use nuclear weapons and increased alert status of their arsenal shocked the globe. At ICAN, we immediately shifted to get everyone, and world leaders in particular, to speak up against nuclear weapons and condemn any threats to use them. Our 2022 Annual Report explores how we worked to rally the world and prevent nuclear war, and how we used the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons as a powerful tool to drive that stigmatisation. 

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As the world marks one year since Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine, the risk of nuclear war is at its highest ever with overt nuclear threats being issued over the conflict and increasingly dangerous rhetoric from the nuclear-armed states and their allies. Only days before the one-year mark, Russia has announced it is suspending the implementation of the New START agreement with the US. On the plus side, we have also seen the world unite in condemning nuclear threats, and realise the urgent need to eliminate these weapons of mass destruction through the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

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Despite being one of the most prominent supporters of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons during its negotiations, Switzerland has not yet acceded to the TPNW. However, the Federal Council is currently reassessing whether to join. Together with the Institute of European Studies at the University of Zurich, ICAN organised a well-attended event on 20 February 2023 to feature a discussion nuclear weapons, their humanitarian consequences and misconceptions around the TPNW. Speakers included Alexander Kmentt, President of the  first meeting of states parties to the TPNW, and Martin Dahinden, former Swiss ambassador to the United States.

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This briefing paper provides an overview and recommendations for establishing an international trust fund for victim assistance and environmental remediation in the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).

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The Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) is now looking for their next Executive Director to guide and coordinate the global campaign. 

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Young people from around the world are encouraged to come to Hiroshima for this once in a life-time Hiroshima G7 Youth Summit. The summit will take place 25-27 April at the Hiroshima University campus. This ICAN summit is hosted and co-organised by The Center for Peace, Hiroshima University. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet with survivors, visit Hiroshima, and connect with others in advance of the G7 summit to be held in Hiroshima.

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Opinion article by interim Executive Director, Daniel Högsta

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Hablamos con la activista sueca y Premio Nobel Beatrice Fihn sobre masculinidad tóxica y geopolítica: «Ningún gobierno tiene un plan para el día después de un ataque nuclear»

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The nuclear threat is growing, and it is very normal for people to experience nuclear war anxiety as a result. As a global campaign that speaks out about the catastrophic impact of nuclear weapons, we have a responsibility to help people handle these feelings.

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The question is on everyone’s mind- will he or won’t he?  Will the taboo against nuclear use in war hold? What would be the impact of the use of a nuclear weapons?  We provide answers to your questions about Putin and Russia's nuclear threats.

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Representatives from 37 African states gathered in Pretoria at the African Regional Seminar on the Universalisation of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) to discuss how to get every African state to sign and ratify the UN nuclear ban treaty as soon as possible.

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As Beatrice Fihn prepares to step down from her role as head of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (Ican) in a few days, we spoke to her about what it’s been like to lead the nuclear disarmament fight for nearly a decade.

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An anti-nuclear campaigner has argued that the West's possession of nuclear weapons actually makes it more vulnerable to an attack.

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ICAN and Peace Boat are coordinating a global civil society working group on nuclear disarmament in preparation for the G7 Summit in Hiroshima. For the first time ever, heads of state from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as high level representatives from the European Union, will visit Hiroshima, Japan, 19-21 May 2023. They cannot dare to leave without a plan to end nuclear weapons.

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The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist has reset the minute hand on the Doomsday Clock at 90 seconds to midnight, "largely but not exclusively due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine". This year’s Clock announcement must not be followed by the usual hand wringing, resignation and excuses, but with urgent action to avoid nuclear war. ICAN has a roadmap for ridding the world of nuclear weapons in four steps: prohibition, stigmatisation, negotiation, elimination. 

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The Doomsday Clock is the latest reminder that humanity has the capability to destroy itself at any time with nuclear warfare.

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From a Paid Internship to a Nobel Peace Prize: The Amazing Journey of Beatrice Fihn

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She's Spent a Decade Fighting to Ban Nuclear Weapons. The Stakes Are Only Getting Higher

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Djibouti has become the first new signatory to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) in 2023. At the UN headquarters in New York on 9 January, the country’s ambassador to the United Nations, Mohamed Siad Doualeh, signed the landmark treaty, bringing the total number of signatories to 92. Djibouti will now commence its domestic ratification process in order to become a state party.

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In 2022 a further five countries signed and nine ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), bringing the total number of signatories to 91 and states parties to 68. This steady increase in adherence to the landmark disarmament treaty reflects the strong desire of the international community to strengthen the global norm against nuclear weapons and see more rapid progress on disarmament. To promote universalisation of the TPNW, ICAN and its partner organisations around the world held dozens of workshops with government officials, meetings with parliamentarians, and community awareness-raising events.

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With the support of ICAN in cooperation with the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung e.V, four emerging scholars from Russia, Czechia, Poland and Ukraine have produced fresh analysis on nuclear disarmament in the Eastern and Central European region.

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In January 2021, the treaty banning nuclear weapons, including threats to use nuclear weapons, entered into force and became international law. In February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine and threatened to use these horrific weapons. Here’s how we put the treaty to work and responded:

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In December, the United States is bringing new nuclear warheads to Europe. The B61-12 warhead is a more advanced warhead from the ones currently deployed in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey.

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Fewer long-term investments were made in the companies behind the nuclear weapons industry, according to the Don’t Bank on the Bomb report, published today by PAX and ICAN. The report found a $45.9 billion drop in long-term investments in 2022, including loans and underwriting.

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By the time this article is published, 58 Greek municipalities support ICAN’s Cities Appeal. They represent more 15% of the Greek population or around 2 million citizens. The vast majority of them joined the campaign after the Russian invasion in Ukraine and the war that unfortunately is still going on. And there will be more municipalities signing up in the coming weeks. This is the result of a campaign called #σώσετηνπόλη (“#SaveTheCity”) that has been underway for the last one and a half years, organized by the Greek branch of “World without Wars and Violence”, an international partner and local representative of ICAN. And this is the story behind this result. 

By Nikos Stergiou, Greek branch of World without Wars and Violence. 

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Statement by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) to the 21st session of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute

The Hague, 5 December 2022

Distinguished delegates,

The use of nuclear weapons would be a war crime. 

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The 123 countries that oversee the International Criminal Court are meeting in the Hague this week. With Russia’s threats to use nuclear weapons against anyone intervening in the Ukraine conflict and responses from other governments that imply possible retaliation with nuclear weapons, the idea of using nuclear weapons is being normalized. Yet any use of a nuclear weapon would cause widespread civilian injury, loss of life, and severe environmental damage, which the ICC’s founding documents consider to be a war crime.

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This briefing paper provides an overview and recommendations for inclusion in the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) intersessional process.

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The 2022 session of the Assembly of the States Parties to the Rome Statute is being held amid an alarmingly increased risk that nuclear weapons will be used, especially considering Russia’s threats to use nuclear weapons against anyone intervening in the the Ukraine conflict. 

Given the immense and indiscriminate destructive power of nuclear weapons and their wide-ranging catastrophic humanitarian consequences, the use of nuclear weapons would constitute a war crime under several of the provisions outlined in the Rome Statute. 

This briefing paper provides an overview of the relationship between nuclear weapons and the International Criminal Court.  

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As the US Air Force shows off its new B-21 stealth bomber and Russia and China are expanding and updating their own nuclear arsenals, we explore how these states are violating their commitments under international law and increasing the risk of nuclear catastrophe.

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The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons has launched a donation appeal to create a new fund to support actions and visual stunts around the world in 2023 that disrupt the status quo on nuclear weapons. ICAN is hoping to raise 50,000CHF by the end of the year, contributions to the fund can be made at give.icanw.org

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Nuclear weapons have only been used twice. Now Russia has hinted they could be used again. In this podcast episode, Inside Geneva host Imogen Foulkes asks experts how big the threat is.

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34 leading Swiss personalities from politics, diplomacy, academia and civil society have called on the Swiss government to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

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Political and humanitarian actors have called on Switzerland to sign the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).

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“If large geographic regions like Latin America and the Caribbean can be kept free of nuclear weapons, why not, one day, the entire world?” This was a question posed by ICAN campaigner Cristian Wittmann on 17 November at a conference of states parties to the Treaty of Tlatelolco held in Mexico City. Signed in 1967, the landmark regional nuclear-weapon-free zone treaty for Latin America and the Caribbean was the first of its kind in a populated area.

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The French government currently rejects the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). However, parliamentarians in favour of this new international norm have multiplied initiatives in recent months with the advocacy work done by our partners ICAN France. 

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The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has announced today that its executive director, Beatrice Fihn, has decided to step down at the end of January 2023 after nine years in the role.

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The International Steering Group of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), has today shared the news that Beatrice Fihn, Executive Director, has decided to step down at the end of January 2023 after nine years in the role.

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As the war in Ukraine enters into its ninth month, some nuclear arms experts across the United States and Europe are in agreement that the risk of nuclear war, though difficult to quantify, is at its highest level since the 1960s.

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At the United Nations in October, Australia formally ended five years of opposition to the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Rather than voting against an annual UN General Assembly resolution urging countries to join the landmark treaty – as it had done in previous years under its former conservative government – Australia abstained for the first time. Campaigners welcomed this shift as a “small but important step forward”.

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Today’s disarmament activists are applying a new set of tactics to respond to threats including those from Putin in Ukraine

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The health system is readying itself in case of nuclear bombing or disaster at a power plant.

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Russia’s escalation regarding threats of using nuclear weapons is a significant cause for concern and should be condemned far and wide before the rhetoric becomes normalised, a group of 42 parliamentarians from 13 countries write.

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The Hell of Hiroshima - Let's Get Real About Nuclear Weapons by Setsuko Thurlow

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China’s President, Xi Jinping, has added his voice to condemning nuclear threats urging Russian President, Vladimir Putin, not to use them in the conflict in Ukraine.

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Amidst an unnerving environment of nuclear threats, leading Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) states parties met in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly First Committee to chart the course for implementation of the landmark Vienna Action Plan, adopted at the First Meeting of States Parties in June 2022.

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Sendung: Der Wandel ist weiblich

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Against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, with its attendant nuclear risks, a majority of the world’s countries have reaffirmed their support for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which entered into force last year and makes nuclear weapons illegal under international law. In a vote at the United Nations on Friday, 124 countries supported a resolution calling for greater adherence to this landmark disarmament treaty.

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After former Coalition government repeatedly sided with US against it, Labor has shifted position to abstain

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On October 13, 2022, ICAN's United Liaison Seth Shelden delivered the following statement to the 77th session of the First Committee of the United Nations General Assembly:  

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Russia’s threats to use nuclear weapons have heightened tensions, reduced the threshold for use of nuclear weapons, and greatly increased the risk of nuclear conflict and global catastrophe.  This briefing paper provides an overview of why delegitimisation of these threats is urgent, necessary and effective.

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Pope Francis on Sunday warned Russian President Vladimir Putin's actions in Ukraine are raising the risk of a nuclear attack.

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Update 3 November 2022 : North Korea’s ballistic missile tests on November 3rd are the latest in more than 40 weapons tests, including short, medium and long-range missiles and artillery barrages close to South Korea since the beginning of 2022. Pyongyang alsoannounced on 9 September a new law making its nuclear-armed status “irreversible”, prohibiting talks on denuclearization, and, most worryingly, allowing for pre-emptive use of nuclear weapons.

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The International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons has been commemorated annually since it was declared in 2013. The day provides an opportunity for states to recommit to the priority of nuclear disarmament. The 2022 day included a General Assembly high level session and hundreds of civil society events across the world. 

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Two international treaties offer starkly different approaches to eliminating nuclear weapons.

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With world leaders gathering in New York this week for the annual opening of the United Nations General Assembly – and against the backdrop of Russia’s latest nuclear threats – five more nations have signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and two more have ratified it. This brings the total number of TPNW signatories to 91 and states parties to 68.

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Companies are involved in producing, manufacturing, and developing nuclear weapons. These companies should get out of the business of building the most destructive, inhumane and indiscriminate weapons ever created.

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President Putin has issued his most aggressive threats to use nuclear weapons to date. In a speech delivered to the nation on 21 September 2022, Mr Putin announced a partial mobilisation of Russian military forces and made new and more explicit threats to use nuclear weapons “in the event of a threat to the territorial integrity of our country and to defend Russia and our people”.

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On August 5th 2022, ICAN's statement to the 10th Review Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty was delivered by Yelyzaveta Khodorovska, a student and young nuclear weapons scholar from Ukraine. The full statement, co-authored by Yelyzaveta Khodorovska, Valeriia Hesse, and ICAN can be read in full below. 

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On the International Day Against Nuclear Tests, ICAN launched a new resource featuring the stories of  survivors of nuclear weapons testing: icanw.org/survivingnucleartesting   

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After four weeks of meetings, the 10th Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference has failed. Despite the final draft outcome document being significantly weakened throughout the negotiations, Russia refused to accept the final version and the conference ended without an agreement. 

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As the NPT Review Conference enters its fourth and final week, states parties are busy negotiating the textual details of the possible outcome. This is the stage of the conference where delegations are increasingly forced to concentrate on their most important objectives, and to let their smaller concerns go by the wayside in the interest of achieving consensus. So what are our most important objectives for the conference outcome? How could this conference make a genuine contribution to progress towards the total elimination of nuclear weapons?

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On August 17,2020 the following statement was delivered on behalf of states parties and signatories to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, by Mexican Ambassador Juan Manuel Gómez Robledo: 

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On Friday 12 August, the first two draft documents for the 2022 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference were released to states parties: the draft report of Main Committee 1 and the draft subsidiary body 1 report, both of which are dedicated to discussing and agreeing on action on nuclear disarmament.

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While it may seem a formulaic and sterile diplomatic exercise, as one delegate after another reads out their country’s prepared statement, the general debate at the NPT review conference actually provides a valuable overview of global political sentiment on nuclear weapons and nuclear disarmament. Over 120 states took part, allowing us to make a comprehensive assessment of the areas of movement and resistance worldwide.

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Matthew Syed draws up a map of our current nuclear order and charts a path to a safer future.

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World leaders are meeting at the United Nations in New York to begin their first review of the UN Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) treaty since nuclear weapons became prohibited under international law in 2021. Pressure is high on all 191 NPT member states to condemn the recent threats to use nuclear weapons during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the increase and modernisation of nuclear arsenals by all nuclear-armed states, and the increased role of nuclear weapons in security doctrines.

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Nuclear weapons are the most destructive, inhumane and indiscriminate weapons ever created. A single nuclear bomb detonated over a large city could kill more than a million people in a matter of seconds. More than fifty years after the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) entered into force, there are still nearly 13,000 nuclear weapons in the world, many ready to be used within minutes. Here are a few relevant links and a social media kit you can use to remind them, ahead of and during the meeting, of why nuclear weapons need to be eliminated now. 

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This briefing paper summarizes key points for states to raise at the 10th Review Conference on the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons taking place 1-26 August in light of recent actions set to undermine the treaty, especially Russian nuclear threats, harm that has been and would be caused by nuclear weapons use, and the adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons since the last NPT review conference.

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On the occasion of the 10th Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, taking place 1-26 August 2022, ICAN produced a legal analysis of the compliance of each nuclear-weapon state with the Treaty. The analysis concludes that each state is in violation of their obligations under Article VI of the NPT.

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For the first time ever investors were directly represented at a conference of parties to a humanitarian disarmament treaty. The Italian asset manager Etica Funds, on behalf of a group of 37 investors presented a group statement to the first meeting of states parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

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Together with survivors of nuclear weapons use and testing, and other experts from around the world, we built an interactive map as an educational tool to provide an overview of what we know about the impacts of nuclear weapons use and testing of the over 2000 nuclear weapons detonated since 1945, featuring dozens of survivor testimonies and stories of their activism for justice.

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Malawi ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) on 29 June 2022, just one week after the historic first meeting of states parties in Vienna, which condemned any and all nuclear threats and agreed an ambitious action plan to rid the world of nuclear weapons. It became the 66th state to ratify or accede to the treaty.

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Vienna- 23 June 2022- In response to Russia’s nuclear threats and the increasing dangers of nuclear war, states parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons condemned unequivocally “any and all nuclear threats, whether they be explicit or implicit and irrespective of the circumstances”.

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The following briefing paper provides an overview of the Vienna Declaration and key actions (PDF) agreed to at the First Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, in the Vienna Action Plan, adopted on 23 June 2022.

Download the briefing paper as a PDF here. 

Download in Arabic here.

Télécharger en français ici.

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The historic first Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons concluded in Vienna today 23 June with the adoption of a political declaration and practical action plan that set the course for the implementation of the Treaty and progress towards its goal of the total elimination of nuclear weapons.

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The First Meeting of States Parties to the TPNW began today in Vienna. At least 82 delegations were seen at the opening, with more coming in through the day both from States Parties and Observers.

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Parliamentarians for the TPNW, a network of legislators in support of the treaty, met on the eve of the first Meeting of States Parties. Coordinated by ICAN, parliamentarians agreed to redouble the efforts to increase membership of the Treaty and discussed a joint action plan for further collaboration.

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Address to the opening session of the First Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

Beatrice Fihn, Executive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) 

Vienna, 21 June 2022

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As the international community gathers in Vienna for the first meeting of states parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), three more countries have ratified the landmark United Nations agreement, bringing the total number of parties to 65.

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Первое заседание государств-участников TPNW началась сегодня в Вене. По меньшей мере 82 делегации присутствовали на открытии и ещё больше членов участвующих сторон и наблюдателей прибудут в течение дня.

Read in English here: First Meeting of States Parties Begins

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Until last week, the Netherlands was not expected to observe the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons' first Meeting of States Parties. That all changed on Thursday, 16 June, when a motion tabled by MP Jasper van Dijk succeeded in winning a majority in the Tweede Kamer, Netherlands parliament. The Government has now confirmed that it will send a delegation to observe the meeting.

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Australia will attend the first meeting of states parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) in Vienna next week as an observer. ICAN welcomed the government's decision to engage with this critical meeting – as a step towards signature and ratification.

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The ongoing humanitarian and environmental impacts resulting from the legacies of past nuclear weapons use and testing continue to be an issue for communities in countries around the world today. In the context of broader discussion regarding the humanitarian impacts of nuclear weapons, a renewed international focus on addressing these ongoing legacies is likely to result from the implementation of the framework on victim assistance, environmental remediation and international cooperation and assistance contained in articles 6 and 7 of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). 

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Marcus Kahn is a researcher, writer, and educator based out of Berkeley, California. His work is critically informed and investigates the narratives and intellectual trends that dominate public discourse. He is fascinated by the role of information distribution in the formation of belief-systems as they relate to media coverage, public policy, and socioeconomic behavior, and has published work with the Hampton Institute. Marcus was a literacy intervention specialist for children with learning differences before producing content for economic forums around the globe. He taught middle-school English in Oakland and currently works in nonprofit development and communications.

Jeffery Klaehn holds a PhD in communication from the University of Amsterdam and a PhD in sociology from the University of Strathclyde. He resides in Canada. Orcid ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8322-9024

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Remy Zahiga, is a young Congolese climate activist, community organizer, nuclear prohibition and Peace activist. He  graduated (BAC+5) from Université Officielle de Bukavu (UOB), in Geology (Mine exploration) in the DR Congo. After he faced the degradation of the Congo rainforest, he decided to join the environmental movement by advocating to save the congo basin forest which is the world’s second lungs and the urgent need to promote the rights of the indigenous people, and after he raised and faced impacts of armed conflicts in the Eastern part of the DR Congo, he took the engagement to join the Peace seekers movement. 

His graduation research in 2019, was to ′′Evaluate the impact of Demography on the pollution of the groundwater in rural areas of Bukavu′′, DR Congo; published in manuscript at the UOB Library in French.

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Talei Luscia Mangioni is a Fijian and Italian woman who was born and raised on Gadigal Land of the Eora Nation (Sydney, Australia) and now lives and works on Ngunnawal and Ngambri Lands (Canberra, Australia). She is especially passionate about the issues of nuclear abolition and decolonial storytelling. She is a PhD Candidate in Pacific studies at the Australian National University researching the imaginative and creative legacy of the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific Movement. She works as the editor of the New Outrigger, as a research officer for the Oceania Working Party of the Australian Dictionary of Biography.

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Dimity Hawkins AM is an Australian activist, researcher and a co-founder of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear weapons (ICAN), whose advocacy centres on the history of nuclear weapons testing, nuclear chain issues, the need to eliminate nuclear weapons and for nuclear justice, particularly in the region in which she lives. She identifies as a cis lesbian woman, using the pronouns she/her. Dimity is a current PhD candidate at Swinburne University in Melbourne. Her thesis, which is nearing completion, focuses on the response of Fiji to nuclear testing and decolonisation in the period of 1966-1975. Dimity was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the 2019 Australian Queen’s Birthday Honours for "significant service to the global community as an advocate for nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament."

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Flora Roberts is a lecturer in Environmental History at Cardiff University. She teaches introductory courses on environmental history to undergraduates, as well as more specialised modules for advanced undergraduates and graduate students. She is currently writing a monograph on the environmental history of the interactions between the Syr Darya river and the Ferghana Valley, provisionally titled: A Sea for the Valley: environment and society in Soviet Central Asia. It was in researching this project that she first became interested in the environmental footprint of the nuclear sector, as the river basin of the Syr Darya houses several of the Soviet Union’s uranium mining towns, whose unstable tailing sites now jeopardise the ecosystem of the whole region.

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Jonathan A. Chu is an Assistant Professor of International Affairs and Presidential Young Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. He researches public and elite opinion on issues of war, wartime conduct, democracy, and great power competition, and is especially interested in how identities, norms, and values inform these opinions.

Joshua A. Schwartz is a Grand Strategy, Security, and Statecraft fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and  the Harvard Kennedy School, and a PhD candidate at the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on questions related to reputation for resolve, gender, weapons of mass destruction, threat credibility, and climate change.

Christopher W. Blair is an Assistant Professor of Politics at Princeton University and a PhD candidate at the University of Pennsylvania. His research spans international relations and comparative politics, and focuses on civil wars, forced displacement, and public opinion about foreign policy.

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What nuclear histories are hidden beneath a residential area in Cardiff, Wales? How can we reimagine the spirit of the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific Movement using audio-documentary tools? Does public opinion about the use of nuclear weapons depend on the racial identities of the potential victims of such a strike? These are just some of the questions addressed by researchers sponsored under the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons’ (ICAN) Critical Nuclear Weapons Scholarship Program.

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Dr Karly Burch (she/her) is a United States citizen and Aotearoa New Zealand resident currently working as a Research Fellow at the University of Otago’s Centre for Sustainability. Karly grew up as a settler in Hawai'i and has been studying nuclear issues for over ten years. She earned a joint MSc in agroecology from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences and ISARA-Lyon in 2012. Karly also received a full doctoral scholarship from the University of Otago in 2015 and earned her PhD in sociology in August 2018. She is currently working on a book manuscript titled Eating a Nuclear Disaster: Food, Silence and Science After Fukushima Daiichi. Karly enjoys engaging in transdisciplinary collaborations and mentoring emerging scholars. 

Emily Simmonds (she/her) MA, is a PhD candidate in Science and Technology Studies at York University, and a Researcher at the Centre for Wise Practices in Indigenous Health at Women’s College Hospital, Toronto, Canada. She is a Métis researcher with mixed ancestry (Métis, Scottish and English) working at the intersection of critical anthropology and Indigenous science and technology studies. Her research praxis is committed to advancing anti-colonial research designs in the social sciences and the health sciences. Her doctoral research uses ethnographic modes of analysis to explore how the injurious effects of the colonial nuclear infrastructure in the context of Canada are made permissible and challenged by diverse groups of social actors. She is an alum of the feminist and anticolonial Civic Laboratory for Environmental Action Research (CLEAR), the Technoscience Research Unit (TRU), and the Digital Research Ethics Collaboratory (DREC), as well as a contributor to the Technoscience Salon and the Politics of Evidence Working Group.

Sonja Mueller (she/her) is a PhD candidate at the Centre for Sustainability at the University of Otago. Sonja has a passion for GIS and the power of maps to tell a story. Her research explores community resilience to natural hazards, using participatory mapping and a community-based approach to consider present and future resilience to a major earthquake on the West Coast of Aotearoa New Zealand. 

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The First Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is a crucial opportunity to elaborate on, fill with life, and begin implementing many obligations under the treaty.

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$82.4 billion. That’s how much the nine nuclear-armed states spent on their nuclear weapons in 2021 during a global pandemic, rising global food insecurity and only months before Russia began assembling troops on the border with Ukraine. This represents an inflation-adjusted increase of $6.5 billion from 2020. 

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In its report "Squandered: 2021 Global Nuclear Weapons Spending" the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons shows in 2021, the year before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, nine nuclear-armed states spent $82.4 billion on their nuclear weapons, more than $156,000 per minute, an inflation-adjusted increase of $6.5 billion from 2020.

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With the first meeting of states parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) just one week away, Guatemala has become the 62nd country to join the landmark agreement. Its foreign minister, Mario Búcaro, deposited the country’s instrument of ratification with the UN secretary-general at an event in New York on 13 June. Accompanying him were ambassadors from other Central American countries, all of which have already ratified the TPNW.

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On Wednesday May 18, 2022 Sweden and Finland handed over their letters expressing the countries’ interest in joining NATO. This is historic since it marks the end of Sweden’s 200-year and Finland’s 77-year long history of neutrality and peace. 

In Sweden, the decision on joining NATO was made hurriedly, leaving the Social Democrats (the government) little time to think it through carefully. Several outstanding questions remain unanswered: How will Sweden relate to NATO’s nuclear policy? Will there be nuclear weapons on Swedish territory? Can Sweden work for disarmament as a member of the alliance? While it is theoretically and legally possible, it will require tough political negotiation for Sweden to remain completely outside NATO’s nuclear doctrines. The most important step for Sweden to take now is to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).

(This is a guest post by ICAN Partner Organisation Svenska Läkare mot Kärnvapen - SLMK)

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The first Meeting of States Parties (1MSP) of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) is an important opportunity to advance the treaty’s implementation and the goal of a nuclear-weapon-free world. 

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21 May 2022

Australia is set to embrace the goal of a nuclear-weapon-free world under its newly elected prime minister, Anthony Albanese, who has been a vocal supporter of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). His centre-left Australian Labor Party, which won the greatest number of seats in the lower house of the federal parliament at polls on 21 May, made a pre-election pledge to sign and ratify the landmark disarmament treaty. Such a move would make Australia the first country currently under the United States’ so-called “nuclear umbrella” to become a TPNW state party.

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“We are satisfied with this historic result in favour of Italy’s commitment to nuclear disarmament”, say ICAN Partners Senzatomica and the Italian Network for Peace and Disarmament in response to the passage in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Chamber of Deputies of a resolution which compels the government to take concrete steps towards nuclear disarmament and the contents of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). The resolution emphasises that nuclear weapons still pose a serious threat to humanity today and that it is therefore essential to continue efforts to reduce them with the goal of their definitive elimination.

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The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) was adopted at the United Nations in New York on 7 July 2017 and opened for signature on 20 September 2017. After reaching the threshold of 50 ratifications or accessions, it entered into force on 22 January 2021. Any state may sign, ratify, or accede to the TPNW at any time.

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Amidst rising levels of nuclear tensions and as the first Meeting of States Parties approaches, the Republic of the Congo deposited its instrument of ratification of the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) on 17 May 2022. 

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Following the adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) at the United Nations in 2017 and its entry into force in 2021, governments around the world voiced support for this landmark agreement. Here we present a selection of their statements.

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In July 2017, 122 states voted to adopt the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Forty-two were African states. Since then, all 54 African states have voiced their support for this landmark treaty in the UN General Assembly, and many have signed and ratified it (see the list here), while several are now in the process of becoming states parties. Below is a summary of some of the activities carried out by ICAN and its partner organisations across Africa to promote adherence to the TPNW and to raise awareness of the grave threat that nuclear weapons pose to all humanity.

Original publication date: 27 April 2022

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Many states are in the process of becoming parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Below is a summary of the status of the ratification processes for all signatory states, along with a summary of commitments by several non-signatories to review and join the treaty. Ratification kits to assist states in becoming parties to the TPNW are available here.

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The Republic of Côte d'Ivoire deposited its instrument of ratification of the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) on 23 March 2022.

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June 21 to 23, 2022 have been announced as the new dates for the first Meeting of States Parties to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). The events in Vienna will be a unique opportunity for the world to respond to the current threat of nuclear war and bring together all actors that want to permanently stop the nuclear weapons threat.

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As the Russian government carried out nuclear weapons exercises, threatened to use nuclear weapons if anyone interfered with their invasion of Ukraine, and raised the alert levels of its nuclear forces, the threat of nuclear weapons is back at the top of the international agenda again. However, the nuclear weapons discourse has for the last 20 years been made intentionally inaccessible to the public, hiding the topic behind vague, technical language that are often confusing and unclear.

Statements and comments on nuclear weapons made by national leaders, government officials and military commanders are often vague, couched in euphemisms or abstractions, based on unexamined assumptions, and/or inconsistent with existing national policies and international obligations. This is especially the case during times of high tension and conflict.

Such communication may be intentionally misleading or ambiguous, or may reflect rushed policy and flawed analysis. Either way, asking the right questions is the key to decoding the real message, elaborating its implications, and illuminating the underlying situation.

This guide is intended to help journalists ask the questions that help the public get clear and direct information about nuclear weapons, nuclear threats and nuclear warfare. The examples are drawn from the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, but the advice applies to any situation in which leaders are talking about nuclear weapons.

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Joint statement with 2021 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Dmitry Muratov condemning the urgent threat created by Putin's reckless nuclear actions and rhetoric and calling on Russia to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Originally published in Novaya Gazette on 01 March 2022. For Russian click here. 

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The Russian invasion of Ukraine can make those who work to build international law and establish global norms feel powerless. Yet, the international community has rallied behind international treaties from the UN Charter to the Cluster Munitions Convention to the Treaty on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and against unilateral aggression in response.

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The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) strongly condemns Putin’s order to put Russian nuclear weapons forces on high alert. This is incredibly dangerous and irresponsible, especially during a time of war and high tension. Full statement: 

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The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate strongly condemns the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Putin’s threat to use nuclear weapons. War is never acceptable and Russian attacks on Ukraine, particularly using nuclear weapons, will have catastrophic consequences for civilians. 

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The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons is issuing a call for research proposals to conduct and disperse critical scholarship on nuclear weapons.

Academic and policy research on nuclear weapons is often dominated (financially or otherwise) by supporters of the nuclear weapons status quo in nuclear-armed and nuclear-allied states, failing to reflect a diversity of perspectives from around the world. Academics and researchers who want to conduct nuclear disarmament research may have trouble securing the necessary funding to do so, or to promote their work to reach a broader audience. We would like to support emerging and established scholars working on critical nuclear weapons scholarship so they may conduct and share their research, bringing fresh new perspectives to the field. This research can be useful for advocates and practitioners to advance towards a nuclear-weapon-free world.

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On 27 February 2022, Belarus will vote in a referendum on sweeping changes to the Constitution, which include a removal of the country’s commitment as a neutral, nuclear-weapon-free zone, potentially opening up the possibility of hosting Russian nuclear weapons in the future. This briefing paper explains the referendum, as well as international law and popular support against nuclear weapon deployment.

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Operations Coordinator

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Today, ICAN is launching a report revealing that the healthcare systems in ten major cities around the world would be desperately overwhelmed by the immediate impact of the detonation of just one nuclear weapon.

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ICAN is launching a report revealing that the healthcare systems in ten major cities around the world would be desperately overwhelmed by the immediate impact of the detonation of just one nuclear weapon. The study models the detonation of one 100-kiloton airburst nuclear explosion over major cities in each of the nine nuclear-armed states and Germany, which hosts U.S. nuclear weapons on its territory. It then examines how many hospital beds, doctors, nurses and where information is available, ICU beds and burn care centres would be left to treat hundreds of thousands to over one million injured people.

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Many have questions about the former stationing of Soviet nuclear weapons on Ukrainian territory during the Cold War given the ongoing crisis. Here are some frequently asked questions and answers about Ukraine and nuclear weapons.

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On February 3 2022, ICAN met with Belarusian human rights activist and opposition leader Sviatlana Tshianouskaya in Vilnius, Lithuania to discuss the disturbing threats of nuclear weapons deployment in Belarus. Below is a readout of the meeting:

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The Meeting of States Parties (MSP) to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) has officially been postponed due to ongoing COVID-19 considerations. New dates will be decided soon.

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Following the adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) in 2017 and its entry into force in 2021, governments around the world voiced support for this landmark agreement. This paper presents a selection of their statements.

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*EMBARGOED — 19 JANUARY, 12:00 CET  - 

New Report Launched Today:

101 financial institutions restrict investments in the companies involved in the manufacture, development, deployment, stockpiling, testing or use of nuclear weapons.

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The new PAX- ICAN report “Rejecting Risk: 101 policies against nuclear weapons” shows that the entry into force of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition Nuclear Weapons has created new normal in the financial world in which investors are looking to maximize both profit and progress. The report found that the number of financial institutions with policies excluding nuclear weapons is growing and many are citing the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) as a reason to reject investment in nuclear weapon producers.

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There’s a new normal in the financial world in which investors are looking to maximize both profit and progress. Nuclear weapons don’t fit in that mix, and the new PAX- ICAN report “Rejecting Risk: 101 policies against nuclear weapons” profiles the institutions leading the way.

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Support for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) continued to grow in 2021, with a further eight countries becoming states parties: Cambodia, the Philippines, Comoros, Seychelles, Chile, Mongolia, Guinea-Bissau, and Peru. In addition, several countries made significant progress towards completing their domestic ratification procedures and are expected to become states parties in 2022.

In dozens of countries, campaigners from ICAN’s partner organisations met with government officials, parliamentarians, and other stakeholders to promote adherence to the TPNW. They organised workshops and press conferences, raising awareness about the grave threat that nuclear weapons pose in the world today and the importance of the TPNW as a tool for creating pressure and momentum for disarmament.

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On 11 January 2022, Archbishop John C. Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico circulated a letter in support of nuclear weapons abolition and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons to all the parishes in his diocese.

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Peru ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) on 23 December 2021, becoming the 59th state party. The ministry of foreign affairs said that the move highlights Peru’s “high commitment to its obligations under international human rights and humanitarian law”, as well as its “commitment to promoting international peace and security”.

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2021 was always going to be a milestone year for nuclear disarmament, because it began with the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons’ entry into force in January. But at ICAN, we did not stop there, and our campaigners have been booking victories to make this historic moment have an even bigger impact. Here are just a few of our victories:

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The Republic of Guinea-Bissau deposited its instrument of ratification of the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) on 15 December 2021.  

«The ratification of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons constitutes the last and important step towards the unequivocal affirmation of Guinea-Bissau's commitment to a world free of nuclear weapons. We stand together for the affirmation of international peace and for the future of humanity,” said Suzi Carla Barbosa, Minister of State, Foreign Affairs for International Cooperation and Communities of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau.

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Mongolia acceded to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) on 10 December 2021, becoming the 57th state party. In a speech to the national parliament in October, the Mongolian foreign minister, Battsetseg Batmunkh, said that joining this landmark treaty would “meet the fundamental interests of national security”.

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The comprehensive legislation adopted by New York City Council on 9 December 2021, calls on NYC to divest from nuclear weapons, establishes a committee responsible for programming and policy related to NYC’s status as a nuclear-weapons-free zone, and calls on the U.S. government to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW)

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More than 100 organisations from over thirty countries signed on to letter with ICAN to press for civil society access at the upcoming 10th Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), currently scheduled to take place 4-28 January at UN Headquarters in New York. The letter was sent on 17 November to NPT Review Conference President-Designate Gustavo Zlauvinen and the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs, which convened a civil society consultation shortly thereafter on 24 November.

The full text of the letter and organisational sign ons appear below. Organisations still interested in signing on to the letter may do so by contacting [email protected].

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The German coalition’s decision represents an important step forward for the German people who have steadfastly opposed nuclear weapons for decades. ICAN and its partners in Germany and across the world congratulate this government for taking a first step towards the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and respecting the will of the German people who no longer want illegal weapons stationed in their country. Along with Norway who will also participate in the first Meeting of States Parties, Germany is showing leadership in Europe, NATO and the world towards a modern security policy.

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On December 2-3, 2021, the World Nuclear Survivors Forum 2021 will bring together nuclear survivors and impacted communities around the world to virtually meet, learn from each other and input into the upcoming first Meeting of States Parties of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The forum will be live streamed to allow people around the world to learn from nuclear survivors, and take action for nuclear justice  and a world free of nuclear weapons.

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The recently released annual U.S. Department of Defense report on China’s military posture predicts that China’s nuclear forces will grow substantially in coming years, up to 1,000 nuclear warheads in 2030, roughly one-fifth the size of the current U.S. nuclear arsenal. China is currently estimated to have 350 nuclear weapons. At the upcoming 10th Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, states parties must hold China and all other nuclear weapon states advancing their nuclear arsenals to account for violating their commitment under the treaty to pursue disarmament.

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The 2021 report “Perilous Profiteering: The companies building nuclear arsenals and their financial backers” is a joint publication of ICAN and it’s partner PAX. The report details how 338 financial institutions made $685 billion available to 25 nuclear weapon producing companies from China, France, India, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States.

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A new report released by ICAN and PAX today, has found that the number of banks, pension funds, asset managers and insurance companies investing in the production of nuclear weapons has gone down in 2021, and shows significant drops in the shareholder values of investments in the 25 companies involved in nuclear weapon production around the world. There is also an early but visible impact of the entry into force of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), with many institutions citing the treaty’s entry into force and the risk of a negative public perception as reasons for the change in their investment policies.

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Sweden’s position on nuclear disarmament has over the last few years been muddled and inconsistent. Foreign interference, a flawed government “investigation,” as well as the ongoing national debate over Nato membership have called into question the real reasons why Sweden decided not to join the TPNW in 2019. However, more clarity seems to be on the horizon as the ruling government party Socialdemokraterna for the first time clearly decided that the goal is for Sweden to join the TPNW at their party congress last week. 

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Norway last week became the first Nato state -- and first nuclear weapon complicit state -- to commit to participating at the First Meeting of States Parties of the TPNW. The commitment was included in the government’s coalition agreement, released on 13 October. The move by Norway breaks the hard line against the TPNW that Nato had sought to exert on its member states, and opens the doors for others in the alliance to follow suit. 

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Swedish financial institution Länsförsäkringar is the latest financial institution to add the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons to their controversial weapons policy. 

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On 8 October 2021, Maureen Penjueli of the Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG) delivered the following statement to the 76th UNGA First Committee on behalf of ICAN:

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This briefing paper provides an overview and recommendations for the 2021 UN General Assembly First Committee.

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Chile became the 56th country to ratify the landmark Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) on 23 September 2021. As leaders from around the world gathered in New York for the annual high-level opening of the UN General Assembly, the Chilean foreign minister, Andrés Allamand, deposited his country’s instrument of ratification with the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and United Nations Legal Counsel, Miguel de Serpa Soares.

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Germany is set to have a new government after the elections on September 26th. The Majority of Germans want their government to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Thomas Hajnoczi, former Head of Disarmament of the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs analysed the implications of Germany's accession to the TPNW. 

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Welcome to the Hiroshima - ICAN Academy! ICAN and the Hiroshima Prefecture are very excited to provide what we sincerely hope will be an enriching and inspirational learning experience for you.

The ICAN team, including the main course operators from ICAN partner Peace Boat, are at your service for any questions, comments or concerns that you have throughout the course. Please don't hesitate to get in touch!

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This briefing paper aims to summarize key previous research and essays on nuclear weapons, racism and colonialism. It was informed by a series of meetings and discussions on anti-racism within ICAN’s International Steering Group (see list of member organisations here) and through ICAN’s participation in the Humanitarian Disarmament Forum on Racism and Intersectionality. ICAN will continue to work against racism and nuclear weapons, with a focus on amplifying voices from impacted communities. We welcome input and feedback on this paper and encourage interested partner organisations and others to reach out and join this work ([email protected]).

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Programme Coordinator

@SusiSnyder

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Suva, Fiji 

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Due to overlapping dates with major disarmament meetings that have had to be postponed due to the pandemic, the first Meeting of States Parties to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, will now be taking place on 22-24 March 2022.

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The first meeting of states parties (“1MSP”) to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which will take place from 21-23 June 2022.

This informal briefing note from ICAN outlines in basic terms what it means for a government to participate as an observer at the first meeting of states parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

March 2022

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Belgian financial institutions led the way against investments in cluster munitions, now they are poised to do the same on nuclear weapons. Three major Belgian financial institutions -- KBC Bank, VDK Bank and De Groof Petercam Asset Management -- have cited the  Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) as the reason for ending investments in companies associated with the production of nuclear weapons.

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We often get the question: "what can I do to help ICAN end nuclear weapons?" There isn't always a one-size-fits-all answer, because our global campaign has to adapt to the very specific local contexts. But there's a frequently underestimated way in which you can make all the difference to our campaign: raising funds. Whether it's making a donation, or inviting a friend or family member to pitch in, you will help power our work and that of our campaigners around the world.  Here are five reasons to do so:   

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Welcome to the Hiroshima - ICAN Academy! ICAN and the Hiroshima Prefecture are very excited to provide what we sincerely hope will be an enriching and inspirational learning experience for you.

The ICAN team, including the main course operators from ICAN partner Peace Boat, are at your service for any questions, comments or concerns that you have throughout the course. Please don't hesitate to get in touch!

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In the 2021 shareholder meeting season, two nuclear weapon producing companies faced resolutions referring to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.  Lockheed Martin’s shareholders voted on the resolution in April, and Northrop Grumman in May. At both shareholder meetings, the resolutions did not get majority support, but did receive enough to be submitted again in future annual meetings.

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A checklist of steps states parties can take to implement the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

June 2021

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The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons said in a report on Thursday that it had seen increased backing among voters and lawmakers in the alliance’s 30 countries.

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All eyes were on Geneva today, as US President Joseph Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin held their first summit. The summit was a unique opportunity for both presidents to make real progress towards nuclear disarmament, but the outcome of the Geneva Summit does not reflect the gravity of current nuclear risks. Presidents Putin and Biden have made no further commitments to reduce their nuclear arsenals, which would be in line with the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and global opinion.

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Why NATO members should join the UN Ban on Nuclear Weapons

In a major report published ahead of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) summit in Brussels on 14 June 2021, ICAN argues that members of the transatlantic alliance should embrace the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which entered into force this January.

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Ahead of NATO summit in Brussels on 14 June 2021, ICAN has launched a major new report, outlining why members of the transatlantic alliance should embrace the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which entered into force this January. It highlights the growing tide of political support for the TPNW in many NATO states, and the mounting public pressure for action. 

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Like other NATO countries like Belgium and Norway, Germany is coming to terms with recognizing the TPNW as a pillar of nuclear disarmament. Politically, there are signs that more progressive disarmament policies are starting to take root and the upcoming election in September is likely to mark a shift in the German Government’s stance towards the TPNW. 

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A new report finds that nine countries collectively spent $72 billion in 2020 on nukes.
Author: John Schwartz
Jun 7, 2021

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$72.6 billion is how much nine nuclear armed countries spent on their nuclear weapons as the pandemic spread in 2020 and a global treaty banning nuclear weapons took full effect. The report “Complicit: 2020 Global Nuclear Weapons Spending” details the spending of these nine countries on their arsenals, the companies that profited, and the lobbyists hired to keep nuclear weapons in business.

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ICAN's new report “Complicit: 2020 Global Nuclear Weapons Spending” unveils one year of the cycle of spending on nuclear weapons from countries to defence contractors to lobbyists and think tanks and back again. In 2020, the report estimates that nine countries spent $72.6 billion on nuclear weapons, $27.7 billion of which went to a dozen defence contractors to build nuclear weapons. Those contractors then spent $117 million lobbying policy makers and up to $10 million funding think tanks writing about nuclear weapons to ensure they can continue to line their pockets with nuclear weapon contracts for years to come.

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Hiroshima Prefecture and the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (“ICAN”) have since 2019 together organized the Hiroshima-ICAN Academy on Nuclear Weapons and Global Security (hereafter referred to as “the Academy”). The Academy aims to nurture global leaders to make concrete and peaceful contributions to the world. This year, for the first time, the Academy will offer an Open Learning Course to provide more people with the opportunity to learn online about nuclear weapons and global security.

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It is our great pleasure to announce that Hiroshima Prefecture and ICAN will hold the Hiroshima-ICAN Academy on Nuclear Weapons and Global Security 2021. Through this training program, we aim to nurture global leaders who can make concrete contributions towards a more peaceful and secure world. Join us for this opportunity to meet and learn together with inspiring people from diverse backgrounds around the world!

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Social Media Officer 

@venessayasmin_h

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Acting Deputy Director 

@dhogsta

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Support for the TPNW in NATO states is growing. The Norwegian Labour Party recently adopted its most progressive position on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Such a change in perception towards the TPNW comes just ahead of the national elections in September, where the Arbeidepartiet is contesting to form government.

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UPDATE 16 April 2021: The dates below have been confirmed. 

The first meeting of states parties to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will take place in Vienna in January next year, with the proposed dates of 12 - 14 January 2022. The President-designate of the meeting is Austria's Alexander Kmentt. 

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Canadians are joining their peers in NATO with strong support to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. A new poll released by Nanos Research on 6 April 2021 shows strong support for the nuclear ban among the Canadian public with 74% of respondents expressing support for joining the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Released days just after Montreal and White Rock became the 13^th and 14^th Canadian cities to join the ICAN City Appeal, the poll is clear evidence that momentum towards the ban treaty is growing in Canada.

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The Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) is universally recognized as a vital component of international security. It has successfully prevented the spread of nuclear weapons to most countries for over 50 years, and it legally commits its 191 member countries to pursue total nuclear disarmament. It complements additional measures such as the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the various nuclear-weapon-free zones, and the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. As the United Kingdom told an NPT meeting in 2017, the NPT “is vitally important for the UK and for the international community as a whole. The NPT has played an unparalleled role in curtailing the nuclear arms race and it continues to play a role in keeping the world safe. It is at the centre of international efforts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, to create a nuclear weapon free world, and to enable access to the peaceful use of nuclear energy.”

But the UK has now taken steps which dangerously undermine this crucial treaty. In its Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy, the UK government announced that it will increase the maximum size of its nuclear arsenal and reduce the information it provides about it. Having consistently committed itself over the past decade to reducing its stockpile to a maximum of 180 warheads by the mid 2020s, the UK has now raised this limit to 260, an increase of over 40%. At the same time, the UK will no longer release operational stockpile, deployed warhead or deployed missile numbers.

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NatWest won't invest in companies that make landmines or cluster munitions, but still allows investments in some of the companies that build nuclear weapons. NatWest Group, which includes subsidiary RBS, is reviewing its investment policy this year and should take the opportunity to exclude all companies involved in weapons that "cause mass, indiscriminate and long-lasting damage.”

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The government of Japan is still refusing to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Yet, the people of the country that experienced the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki wish for their government to join the ban. Public opinion polls from mid-2020 to this January consistently show that a clear majority, 72% at its highest, believe that Japan should join the TPNW. 

In a guest post for ICAN's website, Partner Organisation Peace Boat shares some insight into the current state of play around TPNW in Japan:

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On 16 March, the United Kingdom announced that it would increase its limit on its nuclear arsenal for the first time in decades. Instead of decreasing its nuclear stockpile to 180 warheads in the mid 2020s, the United Kingdom will increase its stockpile cap to 260 warheads - a 40% increase.

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For immediate release. Geneva, 15 March 2021.

UK to increase nuclear warhead cap in integrated review of defence and foreign policy 

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Advocacy Officer

@floeblenkamp

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There’s no easy way to describe 2020 that doesn’t veer into pandemic platitudes or cliches. But for the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, it was also a year where the resilience and effectiveness of our movement shone through, a year in which we made history by reaching the 50 ratifications needed for the UN Treaty on the Prohibition to enter into force. That is why we are proud to present ICAN’s 2020 Annual Report. 

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Comoros has become the 54th country to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which entered into force on 22 January. It deposited its instrument of ratification with the UN secretary-general on 19 February 2021, following the approval by its parliament in December 2020.

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The Philippines has become the 53rd country to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which entered into force on 22 January. President Rodrigo Duterte hailed the ratification as a milestone and reiterated his country’s commitment to work with others to achieve a nuclear-weapon-free world for “peace, security, and the survival of all humanity”.

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A briefing paper on the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. 

January 2021

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ICAN Executive Director Beatrice Fihn addresses a UN high-level ceremony on the day of the TPNW's entry into force. 

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Today is the day. More than 75 years after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the treaty banning these weapons with catastrophic humanitarian consequences enters into force. The countries that have joined the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons are bound to adhere to the treaty’s prohibitions and implement its obligations. The treaty’s normative impact will grow as states parties and civil society push for its full implementation and universalisation.

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UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The first-ever treaty to ban nuclear weapons entered into force on Friday, hailed as a historic step to rid the world of its deadliest weapons but strongly opposed by the world’s nuclear-armed nations.

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is now part of international law, culminating a decades-long campaign aimed at preventing a repetition of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II.

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YouGov polls conducted in late 2020 in six NATO countries - Belgium, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain - show very high levels of public support for their countries to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

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A booklet explaining how the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons works

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Want to use a graphic you’ve seen on ICAN’s social media accounts, but need to make a translation, or edit the text to reflect your country’s situation? Check out our Canva templates!

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ICAN is proud to offer campaigners two separate webinars on photography for actions and events, that can help you capture the awesome activities they have planned for entry-into-force day.

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No one can deny that 2020 was a challenging year. Plans that were made when the year started had to be adapted over and over again, amid the uncertainty, worry and restrictions caused by the pandemic. But the movement to eliminate nuclear weapons was able to do incredible things this year anyway, and we want to share some of these achievements with you:

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Photo: ICAN | Aude Catimel

One of the main problems with talking about nuclear weapons is that it often becomes abstract and hypothetical. Most people barely know which countries have nuclear weapons and do not know to what extent other actors are involved in maintaining and upholding nuclear weapons.

When the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) enters into force on 22 January 2021, that will need to change.

Here are five examples of the kind of activities that will be prohibited under the TPNW and who is currently doing this today. While the treaty will only be legally binding in the countries that have ratified the treaty, it will still create a powerful norm and should lead to increased protests and outrage in countries that haven’t joined the treaty that are behaving in contradiction of this new instrument of international law.

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A briefing paper on NATO and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

December 2020

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NATO’s 15 December statement on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons as it enters into force reiterates misconceptions about the treaty and is tone-deaf to the global support for this landmark instrument, including popular support within several NATO countries.

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As delegates gathered for this year’s UNGA First Committee under the exceptional and challenging circumstances of the global pandemic, most countries commitment to disarmament and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) held steady. From 6 October to 4 November 2020, the 75th session of the UNGA First Committee on Disarmament and International Security reconvened at the UN Headquarters in New York. However, the format of this year’s sessions was markedly different in response to the escalating health crisis. It adhered to strict COVID-19 sanitary related regulations, with limited in-person representation with no civil society present, virtual meetings of eDelegates and public webcasts.

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More than three-quarters of the Belgian population call for Belgium to join the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) according to a new survey commissioned by ICAN. A strong majority want Belgium to take a lead among NATO member states in joining the treaty, even if faced with political pressure from the United States not to do so.

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The coalition agreement of the new Belgian government has adopted a new and positive approach to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. This is no coincidence, as four out of seven coalition parties in the new government have expressed their open support to the TPNW in recent years. But despite this new political reality in Belgium, Belgian diplomats continue to actively oppose the TPNW during UN discussions.

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"Amid this pandemic, there has been hope." On October 13 2020, ICAN campaigner and steering group member Linnet Ng'ayu addressed the UN’s Disarmament and International Security Committee, highlighting how close the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was to reaching the 50th ratification needed for its entry into force and how important that moment would be. On 24 October 2020, the TPNW reached that historic milestone. Read the full statement below

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Hibakusha and nuclear-weapons-abolition Activist

Region: Toronto, Canada

Languages: English, Japanese

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Policy and Research Coordinator

Location: Geneva, Switzerland

Language: English

@azakre

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On 28 October, ICAN kicked off its “Instagram Law School” welcoming friends of the campaign to explain the legal implications of the imminent entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and provide an overview of international law and international humanitarian law.

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Statement by Setsuko Thurlow, survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and long time campaigner for nuclear-weapons abolition, as the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) reached the 50 states parties required for its entry into force. 

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UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations announced Saturday that 50 countries have ratified a U.N. treaty to ban nuclear weapons triggering its entry into force in 90 days.

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On October 24, 2020, the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons reached the required 50 states parties for its entry into force, after Honduras ratified just one day after Jamaica and Nauru submitted their ratifications. In 90 days, the treaty will enter into force, cementing a categorical ban on nuclear weapons, 75 years after their first use.

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Treaty Coordinator

Region: Melbourne, Australia

Language: English

@TimMilesWright

The Pacific island nation of Tuvalu ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on 12 October 2020, becoming the 47th nation in the world to do so. Only three more ratifications are now needed to bring this crucial treaty into force. The treaty will establish a comprehensive ban on the worst weapons of mass destruction and help pave the way to their total elimination.

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North Korea revealed new long-range ballistic missiles that can deliver nuclear weapons in a military parade on 10 October, demonstrating the constant threat to humanity posed by the continued existence of nuclear weapons.

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After long negotiations, seven political parties finally reached an agreement to establish a coalition government — 500 days after the elections took place. According to sources familiar with the negotiations, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was one of the most fiercely debated issues, especially during the later stages.

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Malaysia has become the 46th nation to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Its minister of foreign affairs, Hishammuddin Hussein, signed the instrument of ratification for the landmark disarmament treaty at a ceremony in the nation’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, on 30 September 2020. It was deposited with the United Nations later that day. Just four more ratifications are now needed to bring the treaty into force.

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A briefing paper on the legal and political significance of the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Updated: September 2020

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Recording of the ICAN global zoom call on 17 September 2020. Open to all partner organisations, the call covered the issue of entry into force of the TPNW in order to discuss the legal implications of entry into force, the normative and political implications, go through key arguments for why this will have an impact and of course share campaign ideas for the coming year after EIF. 

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Malta has become the 45th state party to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. It deposited its instrument of ratification on 21 September 2020 as world leaders met to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the United Nations. The move also coincided with Malta’s Independence Day, which marks the date on which the country declared its independence from the United Kingdom, a nuclear-armed state, in 1964.

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Fifty-six former presidents, prime ministers, foreign ministers and defence ministers from 20 NATO member states, as well as Japan and South Korea, have just issued an open letter calling on current leaders to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

The former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon and two former NATO secretaries-general, Javier Solana and Willy Claes, are among the co-signers.

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Administration and Finance Manager

contact

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Support for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons continues to grow, with Malta becoming the 84th nation to sign the landmark agreement on 25 August, just one week after Mozambique signed it. The two new signatures follow ratifications earlier this month by Ireland, Nigeria, Niue, and Saint Kitts and Nevis. Malta will now work to complete its domestic process to ratify the treaty and become a state party.

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Support for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons continues to grow, with Mozambique becoming the 83rd nation to sign the landmark agreement on 18 August. Its signature follows ratifications earlier this month by Ireland, Nigeria, Niue, and Saint Kitts and Nevis. Mozambique will now initiate its domestic process to ratify the treaty and become a state party.

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Today, 9 August 2020, marks 75 years since the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki, killing more than 74,000 people and inflicting harm across generations. To honour the victims and survivors of that horrific attack, the Caribbean state of Saint Kitts and Nevis has ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on this significant anniversary.

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Seventy-five years to the day since the United States detonated an atomic bomb over Hiroshima, three nations – Ireland, Nigeria, and Niue – have ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, a landmark United Nations accord to outlaw nuclear arms and establish a legal framework for their abolition.

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This week marks the 75th anniversaries of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Around the world, ICAN campaigners are partnering with the hibakusha, the survivors of the bombings, to educate the general public about the atrocities 75 years ago and to encourage them to take action to get rid of nuclear weapons for good.

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Ahead of the 75th anniversaries of the bombings on August 6th and 9th, ICAN and the 1945 project are releasing a new resource to take you through the journey of the hibakusha, from the bombings in 1945 through decades of advocacy to the adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. 

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Hiroshima survivor Setsuko Thurlow has issued an appeal to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to publicly acknowledge Canada’s extensive participation in the creation of the atom bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. She asked that the Prime Minister issue a statement of regret on behalf of the Canadian government for the immense deaths and suffering inflicted on the two cities and asked that Canada ratify the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

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Support for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons continues to grow, with Sudan becoming the 82nd nation to sign the landmark agreement on 22 July. Its signature follows ratifications earlier this month by Fiji and Botswana. Only 10 more ratifications are needed to reach the threshold of 50 ratifications to enable the treaty’s entry into force.

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In a press statement celebrating the 11th anniversary of the entry into force of the Pelindaba Treaty, the African Commission on Nuclear Energy (AFCONE) reiterated its call to all African Union Member states to join the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear weapons as a way to build on the commitments to nuclear disarmament outlined in the Treaty of Pelindaba, which declares Africa a Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zone. 

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Botswana has become the 40th nation to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons – a landmark global agreement negotiated in 2017 to outlaw the worst weapons of mass destruction and establish a framework for their total elimination. Only 10 more ratifications are now needed to reach the threshold of 50 ratifications for the treaty’s entry into force.

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Welcome to the Hiroshima - ICAN Academy! ICAN and the Hiroshima Prefecture are very excited to provide what we sincerely hope will be an enriching and inspirational learning experience for you.

This page will serve as your main portal for all the materials you'll need to participate in the online phase of the Academy, including the calendar of events, video lectures, assignment information, contact details and more.

The ICAN team, including the main course operators from ICAN partner Peace Boat, are at your service for any questions, comments or concerns that you have throughout the course. Please don't hesitate to get in touch!

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The Pacific island state of Fiji has become the 39th nation to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The Fijian ambassador to the United Nations, Satyendra Prasad, announced the ratification at an event on 7 July to mark the third anniversary of the adoption of the landmark agreement by a large majority of the world's nations. He said the treaty has particular resonance in the Pacific as a region that has suffered from decades of nuclear testing by colonial powers.

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The 75th Anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima (Aug 6) and Nagasaki (Aug 9) is a moment of remembrance, reflection and -- importantly -- action. Here are the materials that have been produced by ICAN and other partners which you may use for campaigning around the 75th Anniversary commemorations. Feel free to use these resources for your efforts in the run-up to August 6th and 9th, but please take note if you need to credit the author, photographer, etc., as indicated.

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On 6 June 2020, Lesotho ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, becoming the third member of the Southern African Development Community to do so, after South Africa and Namibia. The landmark treaty, which comprehensively outlaws the worst weapons of mass destruction and establishes a framework to eliminate them, will enter into legal force once 12 more nations have ratified it.

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Eleven answers to common comments and questions about nuclear weapons

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For immediate release. Geneva, 23 May 2020.

ICAN condemns U.S. consideration of resuming nuclear testing.

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19 May 2020

Caribbean support for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) continues to grow, with Belize ratifying the landmark agreement on 19 May. Belize is the seventh member of the Caribbean Community, or CARICOM, to become a party, following Guyana, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Dominica, and Antigua and Barbuda. Caribbean nations have been vocal supporters of the TPNW, reflecting their longstanding support for diplomatic efforts to achieve a more peaceful world free from the threat of nuclear weapons.

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For immediate release. Geneva, 13 May 2020.

Nuclear-armed states set record $73bn spending on nukes as pandemic spreads: new report 

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$72.9 billion. That’s how much nine countries spent on nuclear weapons in 2019. In a just-released report, ICAN produced the first estimate in nearly a decade of global nuclear weapon spending, taking into account costs to maintain and build new nuclear weapons.

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In its report "Enough is Enough: Global Nuclear Weapons Spending 2020" the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons has produced the first estimate in nearly a decade of global nuclear weapon spending, taking into account costs to maintain and build new nuclear weapons. ICAN estimates that the nine nuclear-armed countries spent $72.9 billion on their 13,000+ nuclear weapons in 2019, equalling $138,699 every minute of 2019 on nuclear weapons, and a $7.1 billion increase from 2018. 

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Nuclear weapons production leaves a nasty legacy both for people and the environment. Around the world, nuclear weapons facilities have contaminated land and water with radioactive waste lasting at least 100,000 years. Efforts to clean up the sites have cost billions of dollars over decades - and are still largely unfinished. The five case studies below provide just a preliminary look into the devastating global environmental consequences of building the bomb. 

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The imminent entry-into-force of the United Nations’ Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) allows for a unique opportunity to hit the nuclear weapons producers where it hurts – their wallets. Through public pressure, we can make financial institutions respond to a new climate in which these weapons of mass destruction are recognised to be incompatible with sustainable, responsible and smart investment practices and pull their investments from companies that make nuclear weapons.

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How can you get your city, town or local authority to join the ICAN Cities Appeal? Even if you’ve never engaged with local politics before, it’s easier than you might think.

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As governments work to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, progress continues to be made towards eliminating another great threat to humanity: nuclear weapons. On 20 March, Namibia became the 36th nation to ratify or accede to the landmark 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which establishes a categorical ban on the worst weapons of mass destruction and provides a pathway to their total elimination. Several other nations have also recently indicated that, despite these very difficult times, they are continuing to take steps towards ratifying the TPNW.

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Nine doctors from around the world explain why they work to rid the world of nuclear weapons - in the midst of a global pandemic.

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Governments need more resources to help their citizens impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Nuclear-armed states' decision to divert public resources from health care to weapons of mass destruction is unconscionable. We break down the vital resources the billions of dollars being spent each year by France, the United Kingdom and the United States to maintain, upgrade and develop their nuclear arsenals could pay for.

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Given the clear relationship between nuclear weapons and gender, nuclear disarmament must be raised in conversations about gender, women’s rights and equality. This briefing paper breaks down that relationship and the importance of states addressing the specific impact of nuclear weapons on women and girls, work to ensure full representation of women in weapons negotiations and sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

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On 14-15 February, ICAN and ICAN France brought together 300 students and activists to discuss and learn about movement building, political change and what it takes to change the world. Below are the livestreams from the panels on the main stage. 

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Ahead of the NPT Review Conference in May 2020, the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement have brought together experts and government representatives in Geneva to discuss the humanitarian consequences and the growing risks of nuclear weapons for a one-day expert meeting

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ICAN Expert Newsletter - October 2019

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The catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons (by intent, accident or miscalculation) anywhere in the world threatens the fulfilment of the Sustainable Development Goals. By banning and working towards the elimination of nuclear weapons, the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) reinforces implementation of the SDGs. This document breaks down how the TPNW contributes to the SDGs. 

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In a meeting with Hiroshima survivor Setsuko Thurlow and a delegation of ICAN campaigners, Mayor Ada Colau of Barcelona announced the passage of a resolution by the city to support the ICAN Cities Appeal and called on the Spanish government to join the TPNW.

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In a speech outlining his vision for France’s nuclear deterrence strategy, President Macron touted the role of nuclear weapons in European security policy and dismissed calls for their global abolition as an ‘ethical debate’ that lacked ‘realism in the strategic context.’ Meanwhile, Elysee has yet to respond to an invitation to meet renowned Hiroshima survivor Setsuko Thurlow, while she is in Paris next week.

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On 6 February, Belize became the 81st country to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons – a landmark global agreement that outlaws nuclear weapons comprehensively and establishes a legal framework for their total elimination. Belize is the 10th member of the Caribbean Community, or CARICOM, to sign the treaty, after Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Lucia, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Trinidad and Tobago.  

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The USS Tennessee. Photo: The Guardian.

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New Yorkers gathered in numbers at the New York City Council on Tuesday 28 January to give testimony in favour of two pieces of legislation in support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. NYCAN - New York City-based Partners of ICAN organised a rally in support of Res. 976 and Int. 1621.

Photo: Noah Diamond

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Technology has transformed armed conflict throughout history. Today, emerging technologies in the fields of offensive cyber capabilities, artificial intelligence and autonomous technologies will have a significant impact on military behaviour. In the nuclear weapons realm, these technologies add another layer of risk to an already unacceptable level of risk of nuclear weapons use. This briefing addresses these risks and explains why it is critical that policy makers and the public understand the pre-existing dangers of nuclear weapons as well as added risks posed by emerging technologies that make their elimination all the most urgent.

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On 23 January, Paraguay became the 35th country to ratify the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapon. Only 15 further ratifications are now needed to bring this landmark treaty – which places nuclear weapons on the same legal footing as chemical and biological weapons – into force.

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On Thursday, Belgian MPs will vote on a resolution proposing to remove US nuclear weapons stationed in the country, and join the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

UPDATE 17/01: Despite a close-run vote, the resolution did not pass (74 against vs 66 in favour).  The close margin indicates how controversial the presence of US nuclear weapons on Belgian territory is to both citizens and the 66 elected representatives that voted in favour of removing those weapons and joining the UN #nuclearban treaty.

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This year, ICAN campaigners all around the world doubled down on their efforts to rally the world’s nations behind the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear weapons, and to build up a strong and lasting stigma around these weapons designed to mass murder civilians. These are just some of the highlights and successes of the year:

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The Catholic Church has been a leading proponent of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which 122 states, including the Vatican, voted to adopt at the United Nations in July 2017. At a Vatican-sponsored symposium in November 2017, the Pope said that the treaty “filled a significant juridical lacuna” and showed that “a healthy realism continues to shine a light of hope on our unruly world”.

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A review of current assistance programs for victims of nuclear weapons highlights that no single best practice exists and that much more work needs to be done to extend the benefits of these programs to all who have suffered.

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“Silencing the guns: creating conducive conditions for Africa’s development” is the theme of the African Union in 2020. The initiative was initially adopted in 2013 by the AU heads of state during the 50th anniversary of the OAU/AU, with the vision ‘to achieve the goal of a conflict-free Africa, to make peace a reality for all our people and to rid the continent of wars, civil conflicts, human rights violations, humanitarian disasters and violent conflicts and to prevent genocide’.

In this document, ICAN calls on all African Union Member States to sign and ratify the TPNW at the earliest, as part of “Silencing the Guns”.

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Date: December 2019

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The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) opened for signature in New York on 20 September 2017 and will enter into force once 50 states have ratified or acceded to it. This guide is designed to assist campaigners in promoting the signature and ratification of the TPNW.

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As an ICAN partner, you can use the ICAN Partner logo to indicate that your organisation is part of this coalition in any public-facing materials, even when ICAN as an organisation is not directly involved. For example: on your website, on business cards, on event posters. 

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Experts are just beginning to look into the impacts of offensive cyber capabilities and the increased application of machine learning on nuclear weapons risks. There is little disagreement that emerging technologies will increase the risk of possible nuclear use in the future and little confidence in any easy solutions to lower this risk. An expert meeting convened by ICAN analyzed these risks, the way forward, and how to communicate the problem to the public.

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Nearly 50 U.S. universities are involved in the research and design of U.S. nuclear weapons, largely in secret and in contradiction of their mission statements. Students and faculty must demand their universities stop helping to build weapons of mass destruction.

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Under the Trump administration, the United States is engaging in a renewed nuclear arms race, spending nearly $100,000 of taxpayer funds every minute to upgrade its nuclear weapons arsenal. ICAN released today a new report, titled “Schools of Mass Destruction: American Universities in the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex,” that details the ways in which roughly 50 American colleges and universities are supplying the scientific, technical and human capital necessary to maintain and expand U.S. weapons of mass destruction.

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For the last month, the First Committee of the United Nations has met to discuss, debate and vote on resolutions related to disarmament issues. While nuclear-weapon states have attempted to obstruct progress or backtrack on previous commitments, the majority of states continued to push forward a nuclear disarmament agenda. At the upcoming 2020 NPT Review Conference, this majority will need to resist the efforts of a small few and hold firm to strong language on disarmament and the humanitarian impacts of nuclear weapons.

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84% of Finns support Finland joining the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), according to a poll by Kantar TNS Oy, commissioned by ICAN Finland, a network of ICAN partners based in Finland.

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A few months ago, in a two-part blog series, we explored the secret suffering of communities at Hanford – known as the most toxic place in the United States- and the status of cleanup of 56 million gallons of nuclear waste at the Hanford Site. The site has been called “an underground Chernobyl waiting to happen.” In part 3, we look at a workshop that explores the ways in which the communities exposed to radiation perceive it and the recent reduction in funding for cleaning up Hanford.

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ICAN, the International Campaign for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 2017, will be in Hanoi during the second summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un.

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This briefing paper (October 2019) shows how African countries are leading the way towards entry into force of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and the crucial role they have to play to make it happen.

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A newly released edition of the Don’t Bank on the Bomb Hall of Fame shows that the number of financial institutions adopting and strengthening their policies to prevent any financial involvement in nuclear weapon producing companies is growing rapidly. Together, the 36 institutions in the Hall of Fame are keeping at least EUR1600 billion in assets out of the nuclear weapons industry.

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The second edition of the Norwegian People’s Aid’s Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor, the report tracking the progress of and compliance with the 2017 UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was launched at the United Nations Headquarters in New York today. The report finds that while over two-thirds of the world’s countries support the TPNW, 31 mostly European countries are complicit in maintaining the nuclear status-quo.

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Digital Campaign Coordinator

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Project and Grant Management Officer

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United Nations Liaison

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Treaty Coordinator

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Policy and Research Coordinator

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The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), Nobel Peace Laureate 2017, congratulates this year’s Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. Prime Minister Abiy was awarded the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighbouring Eritrea.

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In the last two weeks, 13 more countries have signed or ratified the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), bringing it closer to its entry into force. In the same period, several of the world’s nuclear weapon states engaged in shows of nuclear force, deliberate acts that contribute to a dangerous escalation in the nuclear arms race.

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On February 14 and 15, 2020, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear weapons will be hosting an ICAN Campaign Forum in Paris, France. Organised by ICAN and ICAN France, the ICAN Campaign Forum – Paris 2020 will bring together students and ICAN campaigners from around the world to extract lessons from the ICAN’s work in achieving and promoting the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear weapons, and empower participants to get involved in ending nuclear weapons, or take on other challenges facing the world today.

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The title of a new study by Toon et al, published this week in Science Advances, speaks volumes: “Rapidly Expanding nuclear arsenals in Pakistan and India portend regional and global catastrophe.”

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More and more financial institutions are saying no to nuclear weapons. PAX's Don’t Bank on the Bomb report, Beyond the Bomb, profiles 77 banks, pension funds, insurance companies and other financial institutions with policies to not invest in nuclear weapons producers. This is an increase of 14 since the 2018 report.

Download the report.

This is the second edition of the Norwegian Peoples Aid's Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor, a watchdog which measures progress towards a world free of nuclear weapons, by using the 2017 UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) as a yardstick. The report also evaluates the extent to which the policies and practices of all states comply with the prohibitions in the TPNW, regardless of whether they have joined the Treaty yet.

Download the publication.

ICAN's work on the Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor 2019 was supported by Loterie Romande

New York, United States

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Stockholm, Sweden

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Utrecht, Netherlands

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Tokyo, Japan

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Oslo, Norway

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Buenos Aires, Argentina

Red Seguridad Humana en LatinoAmerica y el Caribe (Red SEHLAC) 

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Boston, United States

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London, United Kingdom

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Nairobi, Kenya

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London, United Kingdom

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On the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, 12 states took another significant step towards achieving this goal by signing or ratifying the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, during a special High-Level Ceremony at the UN Headquarters in New York.

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ICAN statement to the High-Level Ceremony for the Signature and Ratification of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

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During the general debate of the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly from 19 to 25 September in New York, presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers from all regions of the world spoke in favour of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which opened for signature on 20 September. Here are some of the highlights.

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“As Nobel Peace Laureates we have repeatedly warned of the catastrophic consequences of nuclear war and are compelled to do so once again.”

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Statement by 17 Nobel Peace Prize Laureates
September 20, 2019

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September 18, 2019

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Support for the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) keeps growing in the German Parliament. After 166 federal and over 200 regional parliamentarians pledged their support for the TPNW through the ICAN Parliamentary Appeal, a new cross-party working group for the abolition of nuclear weapons had their first meeting on Wednesday.

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August 29, 2019

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In an interview with ICAN,  Phil Hatcher-Moore, an independent photojournalist, who spent two months in and around the Semipalatinsk Test Site in Kazakhstan—where nearly a quarter of the world’s nuclear tests were conducted during the Cold War— shares his experience on his project “Nuclear Ghosts” that  explored the tests’ legacy on the communities that live nearby.

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August 21, 2019

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For some Pokhran, India, residents nearby explosions are so common that one man said, “we don’t even register them anymore.” The villages near the Pokhran testing range are where the military tests explosives every day. But even with the constant barrage, two incidents stand out: the so-called ‘Smiling Buddha’ test of 1974 and the series of tests between May 11 to 13, 1998.

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The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, adopted in 2017, is now halfway towards entering into force. This important milestone was reached on 6 August, the anniversary of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima, when Bolivia became the 25th nation to ratify the treaty.

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Today, 2 August 2019, the governments of the US and Russia have missed a troubling deadline: the end of the six-month notice period that began when both countries announced their withdrawal from the INF Treaty earlier this year.

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On July 31st, 2019, Hiroshima Prefecture and the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) have proudly launched the “Hiroshima-ICAN Academy on Nuclear Weapons and Global Security.” Over the coming 8 days, 15 students and young professionals（25 years of age or younger) will participate in an intensive program designed to teach them everything they need to know to become the next generation of advocates for an end to nuclear weapons

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Part 2:

Hanford is the most toxic site in the United States. Why is the cleanup plan destined for failure?

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Part 1: 

Building nuclear weapons requires materials and labor, not just from scientists, but also from the men and women living in communities nearby. After the Cold War, many of the United State’s most crucial nuclear weapons production sites ‘closed’ and were forgotten, but not by workers and local communities, who were left to deal with the devastating, toxic legacy of these sites.

This is obvious at Hanford Waste Management Site, Washington. It is sometimes referred to as “,” yet most people will never have heard of it. While the workers and activists of Hanford speak out, their stories are dismissed because they demonstrate the real cost of nuclear weapons.

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“At the age of 11… I heard a very large blast and saw a very big flash of light. I got so scared, I thought, ‘the world is coming to an end.’ Then I saw what looked like a large, big, black, giant ball of smoke. It was huge and moving, going higher and higher…”

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At a press conference on Friday July 12th, 2019, Sweden’s Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom announced that Sweden will not currently sign the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). This is a disappointing decision that damages Sweden’s historic reputation as a leader on disarmament.

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On July 7th, 2017, the historic Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) was adopted by the 122 nations in the UN.  Today, ICAN is marking the second anniversary by releasing a new campaigner’s guide to the signature and ratification of the TPNW.

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In January this year, former Swedish diplomat Lars-Erik Lundin published his inquiry into Sweden and the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). He concluded that Sweden should not join the TPNW “in its present form”. New information raises major questions around the methods and transparency of the inquiry.

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On June 19th and 20th, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Guyana and ICAN convened a Caribbean Regional Forum on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons to take stock of the Treaty from a regional perspective, and to canvas progress for the early signature and ratification by all countries in the region.

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On 18 June 2019, lawmakers in Russia’s State Duma voted to support a decree by President Vladimir Putin to suspend the country’s participation in the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, citing a need to protect Russia’s national interest. The Treaty is scheduled to terminate on 2 August 2019, after the six-month notice period expires following the US and then Russian withdrawals from the Treaty.

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Member states of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) played a leading role in the negotiation and adoption of the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) – the first global, legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons. The principled support of CARICOM states for the TPNW and its continued strong commitment to realizing a world without nuclear weapons are demonstrated through the signature and ratification of the TPNW. This paper addresses why it is so critical for CARICOM states to adhere to the TPNW as a matter of urgency.

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A new documentary from ICAN partner, Pressenza, telling the story of how the movement to end nuclear weapons succeeded in achieving the UN Treaty that bans them, will be premiered in New York this Thursday, June 6th.

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Image Credits : Peter W. Merlin

In an interview with ICAN, US nuclear test veteran George Coleman speaks up about the nuclear trials carried out by the U.S. military and his life and health after the nuclear weapons testing conducted in Nevada.

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May 24, 2019

This week, ICAN campaigners from Nigeria, Ghana and Togo will be addressing the ECOWAS Parliament about West African leadership in achieving a world without nuclear weapons, through the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).  ECOWAS is the regional economic union of fifteen West African Countries.

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photo: © European Union 2018 – European Parliament (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives CreativeCommons licenses creativecommons.org:licenses:by-nc-nd:4.0:)

As EU elections approach, arms control on nuclear weapons is unravelling, giving way to a new arms race amid escalating nuclear rhetoric. ICAN has asked all European Parliament candidates to support ICAN’s parliamentary pledge in support of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons adopted in 2017. More than 1,000 members of national parliaments across the EU have already joined.

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The City of Paris has become the first French city – and the second capital city of a nuclear-armed state – to support the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear weapons.

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Article: How to dismantle the absurd profitability of nuclear weapons

Author: Jon Schwarz

Featured in: The Intercept

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As diplomats from all over the world meet to discuss nuclear disarmament at the 2019 NPT Preparatory Committee , President Trump and President Putin are reported to have discussed nuclear weapons and a new arms-control agreement that extends to China during a phone call on Friday. 

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From April 29 to May 10, 2019, ICAN campaigners from all over the world engaged with the world’s UN diplomats in New York  as these gathered to discuss nuclear disarmament  in preparation of next year’s Review of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Their mission? Ensure that these delegations have all the facts on the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, including how it complements the NPT, and thereby feel empowered to speak out in favour of the Treaty.

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A new YouGov poll commissioned by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has found a stark rejection of nuclear weapons in the four EU states which host US nuclear weapons on their soil: Belgium, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. The Europeans who would be on the frontline for a potential nuclear attack strongly reject nuclear weapons and support their governments joining the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

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On Thursday 11 April, US Congresspersons Jim McGovern and Earl Blumenauer introduced a historic resolution, H. Res 302: Embracing the Goals and Provisions of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the first US House of Representatives resolution that calls on the US government to support the nuclear weapons ban treaty (“TPNW”) and make nuclear disarmament a central focus of US national security policy. The text of the resolution is in stark contrast to the United States’ policy on nuclear weapons for many years, which has seen the US engage in a new nuclear arms race, threaten to use nuclear weapons to “totally destroy” civilian populations, boycott successive conferences examining the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons and attempt to undermine the negotiation of the TPNW.

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On April 4th, 2019, the AU Peace and Security Council held a sensitization session on disarmament, including landmines and the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. ICAN was invited to brief the Council on the risk of nuclear weapons use, and the crucial role African States can play in ending them, through signing and ratifying the TPNW.

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Washington D.C. joined a growing number of individuals, organizations, cities and state legislatures that are calling on the United States to take meaningful action to prevent nuclear war. In doing so, it has become one of the first capital cities worldwide to express support for the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, joined by Canberra, Australia and Oslo, Norway. 

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The second summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un in Hanoi has drawn to a close without a new deal on the table, providing further evidence that the complete, irreversible and verifiable denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula will require an international process based in international law.  Anything less will not stand the test of time, particularly if it is solely dependent on these two unstable men. The process must be internationalized.

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Today, the only country that went from developing its own nuclear arsenal to dismantling it and being an outspoken advocate against these weapons of mass destruction, took another critical step towards a nuclear-weapons-free-world: in the halls of the UN HQ of New York, South Africa just ratified the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). 

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On November 8, 2017, ICAN’s Executive Director, Ms. Beatrice Fihn, received an email from a campaigner who volunteered with one of our partner organisations, IPPNW Costa Rica. This confidential email informed Ms. Fihn of an alleged sexual assault that was perpetrated in 2014 against the campaigner by a former head of state from Costa Rica.

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The US suspension of and withdrawal from the INF-Treaty is an irresponsible move that opens the path for a new-nuclear arms race and highlights the importance of real multilateral, binding solutions like the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. With Russia and the US putting the entire world at risk, it is urgent for all responsible states to stand up and join the Nuclear Ban Treaty.

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After months of delay a report for the Swedish Parliament on possible Swedish “accession” to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, compiled by former government diplomat Lars-Erik Lundin, was published today. The investigation concludes that Sweden should not join the TPNW “in its present form”. The next step is a 3-month consultation round in which many different stakeholders will be able to assess the merits of the report. After that it is expected that the Swedish government will make its official decision on whether to join the TPNW.

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How do you top winning the Nobel Peace Prize? As we began to look back at 2018, we thought it would be hard to live up to the excitement that that particular award brought us in 2017. But we shouldn’t have worried: nobody took the Nobel Peace Prize as an excuse to sit on their laurels. Instead, we all got straight back to work and used that energy to book some pretty exciting wins this year.

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The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) applauds the Australian Labor Party for committing to sign and ratify the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons when in government.

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In a 24 to 15 vote (with 2 abstentions), the Council of States of the Swiss Federal Assembly has joined the National Council today in calling on the Swiss government to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and submit it to Parliament for ratification without delay. This vote follows a public backlash  against the government’s decision in August to adopt a wait-and-see approach to the TPNW. The Parliament’s resounding yes sends the signal that  - especially in the face of current international tensions – the humanitarian and security reasons for joining the Nuclear Ban Treaty prevail.

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In September 2018, some unexpected good news came out of Spain: in exchange for their support on the 2019 budget, political party Podemos obtained a commitment from the Spanish government to sign the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). The government has not yet announced how and when they will implement this decision.

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Cities across the planet are speaking up against nuclear weapons and calling on their governments to join the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Yesterday, Manchester joined the growing list of cities that have endorsed the ICAN Cities Appeal.

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ICAN today launches the Cities Appeal, a commitment by cities and towns to show support for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and call on their governments to join. Major cities such as Baltimore, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Sydney and Toronto have already committed themselves to the Appeal which states:

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Each year, the world gathers in New York to discuss disarmament and international security during the UNGA’s First Committee. Yesterday (nov 1, 2018), the First Committee passed a resolution supporting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and calling on all states to join it as soon as possible, by majority vote.

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Today (Oct. 29), at the United Nations in New York, Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) and the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) launch the Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor 2018, the first report of a newly established watchdog for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). The report tracks the progress of the historic nuclear ban treaty, adopted at the UN in 2017, and monitors progress on compliance with the TPNW.

View the report on banmonitor.org →

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Democracy Now speaks with Beatrice Fihn, executive director of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, about the ongoing negotiations on the Korean Peninsula, the U.S. nuclear stockpile and the path to an international ban on nuclear weapons.

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PR - Pacific Island states are celebrating the anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rarotonga, a regional pact that established the Pacific as an internationally recognized nuclear-weapon-free zone 33 years ago. Government officials from the region also declared their support for the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which aims to make the entire world free of nuclear weapons.

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ICAN wishes to congratulate the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, Nadia Murad and Dr Denis Mukwege. Both laureates thoroughly deserve this honour through their incredible work to address sexual violence in conflict, and we look forward to working with them as Nobel laureates dedicated to a peaceful world safe from both the threats of nuclear weapons and the use of sexual violence in war, both fundamental violations of international law. The Nobel Committee has rightly chosen to highlight the role of women this year in giving the award to Nadia and Denis, and it is great to see women like Nadia leading on this issue just as they do in the disarmament movement.

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On October 6th, 2017 at a few minutes to 11, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons received an unexpected phone call from Oslo. The message: the campaign had received the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize, for “its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its groundbreaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons.”

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ICAN wishes to congratulate the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, Nadia Murad and Dr Denis Mukwege. Both laureates thoroughly deserve this honour through their incredible work to address sexual violence in conflict, and we look forward to working with them as Nobel laureates dedicated to a peaceful world safe from both the threats of nuclear weapons and the use of sexual violence in war, both fundamental violations of international law. The Nobel Committee has rightly chosen to highlight the role of women this year in giving the award to Nadia and Denis, and it is great to see women like Nadia leading on this issue just as they do in the disarmament movement.

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This is the first edition of the Norwegian Peoples Aid's Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor, a watchdog which measures progress towards a world free of nuclear weapons, by using the 2017 UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) as a yardstick. The report also evaluates the extent to which the policies and practices of all states comply with the prohibitions in the TPNW, regardless of whether they have joined the Treaty yet.

Download the report.

New York — In a lightning leap forward to a typically snail-paced process, today at the United Nations four states simultaneously ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). This brings the total number of ratifications to 19. A further eight nations signed the Treaty at the UN signing ceremony, an essential step on the path towards their own ratifications.

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At a high-level ceremony in New York on 26 September coordinated by ICAN and a cross-regional group of governments, a group of states marked the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons in a very special way: by signing and ratifying the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. With 9 new signatories and 4 new ratifications, the Nuclear Ban Treaty now has 69 signatories and 19 States party. It has also set a record pace for the speed with which it is moving towards becoming law, compared to other treaties on weapons of mass destruction, such as the conventions on chemical and biological weapons, and nuclear testing and proliferation. The treaty will enter into force when 50 countries have signed and ratified, or acceded to, it.

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September 26th is the International Day for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and this year,  people all over took action for a nuke-free world. At the UN’s New York HQ, that action translated into vocal and active support for Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, during the UNGA’s events marking the day and – most importantly – at a high-level ceremony where 7  countries signed and 4 countries ratified the the Nuclear Ban Treaty. ICAN was at both events, and took the opportunity to deliver two powerful appeals to the world leaders, urging them to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

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Every year on the 26th of September, people all over the world take action to call for a world free of nuclear weapons. This year, we’re showing the world that nothing about nuclear weapons is acceptable. While responsible states from across the globe are signing and/or ratifying the Treaty at a signing ceremony at the UN, citizens all across the planet are taking action to tell BNP Paribas to stop investing in nuclear weapons.

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The success of today’s summit between South Korea’s Moon Jae-in North Korea’s Kim Jong-un again shows that maximum cooperation and engagement are the only path to peaceful solutions. President Moon and Chairman Kim’s commitment to a Korean Peninsula free of the threat of nuclear weapons will make their people and the world safer. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons remains the best vehicle to achieving this vision and the clear pathway to denuclearising both North and South Korea.

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Abolishing nuclear weapons may seem like an idealistic, even utopian objective. But so too did banning land mines. And chemical and biological weapons. Yet after campaigns that also seemed quixotic, those weapons are considered barbaric and treated as illegal by the vast majority of nations. So why not nuclear weapons?

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Advocates for nuclear disarmament are pushing Lebanon to sign and ratify a U.N. treaty that would call for the elimination of all nuclear weapons, taking a much stronger stance than previous international agreements have.

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Big news coming from California, USA today: The state senate just approved a resolution calling for support for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, make nuclear dis armament the centerpiece of our national security policy, and spearhead a global effort to prevent nuclear war. The resolution (Sacramento–Assembly Joint Resolution 33 or AJR 33) was introduced by Santa Barbara’s State Assembly member, Monique Limón, and passed by a vote of 25 to 10.

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World nuclear tensions are mounting, fueled by President Trump Donald John Trump House Republican threatens to push for Rosenstein impeachment unless he testifies Judge suggests Trump's tweet about Stormy Daniels was 'hyperbole' not defamation Rosenstein faces Trump showdown MORE 's careless rhetoric and unilateral withdrawal from the International Iran nuclear deal coupled with rising tensions in our relationship with Russia and the on-again, off-again meeting between the Trump administration and North Korea with his premature declaration of "problem solved"

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The moral stature of Kofi Annan, the former UN Secretary General who died on Saturday, and his association with Geneva and Switzerland raise the question of Switzerland's moral stature as well. graphic The Alpine country is often said "to punch above its weight", that despite its small size it has a disproportionate influence in world affairs.

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August 18, 2018

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons has been the talk of the town at several events and meetings across the African continent over the past few weeks. ICAN campaigners, including Treaty Coordinator Tim Wright, participated in and helped organise many of these events. Here are some of the highlights:

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This week the world commemorated the 73rd Anniversary of the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These attacks cost the lives of over 200,000 people, plagued many thousands more with cancer and disease over the course of decades and cast the dark specter of the nuclear threat over the world, which persists to this day

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NAGASAKI--Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue pressed the Japanese government to join the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons at the Aug. 9 ceremony commemorating the 73rd anniversary of the atomic bombing on this city. He also voiced concerns about the recent trend of some countries trying to bolster their military capabilities through nuclear weapons.

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ICAN, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, has made significant progress in the last year, but according to core member Akira Kawasaki the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize winning coalition is just getting started. ICAN, based in Geneva and launched in 2007, now has around 450 partner organizations in nearly a hundred countries.

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Next week marks 73 years since two atomic bombs were dropped over the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed and maimed, and the effects are still being felt today. But while the mushroom clouds became iconic symbols of mass destruction, and the paper cranes a symbol of hope for a nuclear-free world, there are many things you may not know - or may have forgotten - that are really important if we’re going to make sure this never happens again.

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Last month, President Trump was nominated for a Nobel Prize for his peace building efforts on the Korean peninsula — and not for the first time. Trump was endorsed by two separate groups, and although the deadline for this year’s prize has already passed, these nominations make him eligible for consideration next year.

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I came to Helsinki to ask Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin questions about the threat of nuclear weapons and to distribute an open letter about the need for secure elections and true national security. Instead, I was dragged out of their press conference before it even began and into a Finnish jail.

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On Sunday 7 July the Church of England agreed a motion on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons by a margin of 260-26. It was a huge result and a result of months of hard work and campaigning. This is the first time that the Church of England’s ruling body, known as the General Synod, has debated nuclear weapons for 11 years (since the decision was taken to oppose the replacement of the UK’s nuclear weapon system, Trident).

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On the first anniversary of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), new YouGov polling commissioned by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has found an overwhelming rejection of nuclear weapons.  The poll was conducted in the four EU countries that host US nuclear weapons: Belgium, Netherlands, Germany and Italy. In each country, an overwhelming majority of people surveyed were in favour of removing the weapons from their soil, and for their countries to sign the Treaty that bans them outright.

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On the first anniversary of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), new YouGov polling commissioned by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has found an overwhelming rejection of nuclear weapons. 

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Article originally published on Pressenza.com

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After winning the Nobel Peace Prize last year, ICAN allocated part of the prize money to kickstart a fund to support initiatives that push towards the entry into force of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Since its launch, the 1000 Day Fund has been supported by generous donations from all across the world and today, we are proud to announce four new projects in collaboration with ICAN-partners from Africa, Latin America and the Asia-Pacific Region.

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War games are just a practice run for the mass murder of civilians, writes the head of a Nobel Peace Prize-winning anti-nuclear campaign.

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As Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump signed an “agreement” in Singapore today, ICAN welcomes the diplomatic efforts but warns that only a process based in international law and existing treaty frameworks will achieve nuclear disarmament and fully denuclearise the Korean Peninsula.

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As Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump signed an “agreement” in Singapore today, ICAN welcomes the diplomatic efforts but warns that only a process based in international law and existing treaty frameworks will achieve nuclear disarmament and fully denuclearise the Korean Peninsula.

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The deal on nuclear disarmament made between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un doesn't go far enough, last year's winner of the Nobel Peace Prize says. Beatrice Fihn, executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), which was awarded the prize last December, criticised the document signed by the US and North Korean leaders in Singapore on Tuesday.

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Working behind the scenes for the last month, a group of the world’s foremost nuclear disarmament experts have mapped out the best pathway for total denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, determining that the existing international treaty framework is the most appropriate solution.

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A new nuclear arms race has begun and it does not revolve around the number of weapons, but on increasing their deadliness. Recent nuclear missile tests by India and Russia show that nuclear-armed states are blatantly flaunting their nuclear power, posturing as tough and responsible “protectors” while in reality they put the world at large at risk.

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In his speech to launch of the UN’s new Disarmament Agenda “Securing Our Future”, Secretary General António Guterres praised the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) but failed to condemn possession of nuclear weapons, or call on all states to join the treaty

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The world could only sit passively by this week as two men toyed with the fate of humanity, on the flawed assumption that Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un had our collective best interests at heart.

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Big news from the financial sector: in an update to its investment policies, Germany’s Deutsche Bank excludes nuclear weapons producers.

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The writing has been on the wall for weeks. Today, the White House confirmed that the long-awaited summit between the USA and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea will not take place, claiming “anger and tremendous hostility” made this an “inappropriate time” to have such a meeting.

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When a country’s position on nuclear weapons does not match that of its citizens, cities too, can ramp up the pressure on the government to join the nuclear ban treaty. On April 24, the City of Toronto formally requested that “the Government of Canada sign the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons” following the City Council’s reaffirmation of Toronto as a nuclear weapons free zone in November 2017.

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A 2017 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize on Tuesday tore into President Trump Donald John Trump House Republican threatens to push for Rosenstein impeachment unless he testifies Judge suggests Trump's tweet about Stormy Daniels was 'hyperbole' not defamation Rosenstein faces Trump showdown MORE over the expected announcement that he will pull the U.S.

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Beatrice Fihn, of International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, discusses the U.S. Iran deal exit. She speaks with Vonnie Quinn and Caroline Hyde on "Bloomberg Markets."

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Over the last two weeks, approximately 120 government delegations have been gathered at the UN in Geneva to discuss the implementation (and lack thereof) of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). A considerable number of international organizations and civil society actors were also in attendance. Adopted fifty years ago this year, the purpose of the NPT is to curb the spread of nuclear weapons, further nuclear disarmament, and guarantee the right of all states to use nuclear technology for civilian purposes.

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In support of ICAN, Norwegian People’s Aid is now establishing the Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor, which will be a de facto monitoring regime for the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).

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The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), the Nobel Peace Laureate of 2017, welcomes the efforts from North and South Korea to denuclearize the Korean peninsula. The dangerous rhetoric from Donald Trump and the US brought us to the brink of nuclear war, and only careful diplomacy from South Korea has brought us back from it. It should remind us that in reality, there are no responsible nuclear states, and that only the complete elimination of nuclear weapons through the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will keep us safe.

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Research shows that the five nuclear-armed states parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) are not taking action to fulfill their nuclear disarmament obligations. This directly undermines and threatens the future success of the NPT. 30 more states, the so-called nuclear umbrella states, are enabling nuclear-armed states to retain and upgrade their weapons of mass destruction.

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Nuclear talks between the United States and North Korea are welcome, but the bullying and threats that led up to them were reckless and it is South Korea that should get credit, the Nobel Prize winning anti-nuclear campaign group ICAN said on Thursday.

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Meeting a Monster is incredibly painful. It’s supposed to be. Created using audio recordings and re-enactments, the virtual reality experience recounts the story of Angela King, a woman who spent eight years in the white power movement and is now trying to confront the person she was—and is. It would be hard to watch at any time, but now, just a few months after torch-wielding white supremacists took to the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia, the reality it presents is even more gut-wrenching.

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The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which opened for signature in September 2017, is attracting new adherents. The Treaty was adopted by 122 states to a standing ovation at the UN General Assembly.

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A new report from ICAN (International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons) and PAX is calling out the 20 biggest nuclear-weapons financiers, underscoring the degree to which banks and contractors have been quietly funding the recent resurgence in the global arms race. Disturbingly, the research shows, investment in nuclear weapons increased by $81 billion in 2017.

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On 1 March, the Russian President Vladimir Putin, made headlines by boasting that the Russian Federation’s new ‘invincible’ nuclear weapons can breach NATO’s missile defences in a speech. In particular, Putin bigged up Russia’s new nuclear cruise missiles, which are currently being tested.

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PAX's Don’t Bank on the Bomb report is the only regularly published source of information on the private companies involved in the production of nuclear weapons and their financiers. The report examines contracts for the production of key components of nuclear weapons and their specifically designed delivery systems. It provides information on the financial institutions seeking to profit from these producing companies. The report also profiles those institutions and others that limit or prohibit any financial engagement with companies associated with the production of nuclear weapons.

Download the report.

Twenty cyclists have begun a 900km journey to Canberra from Melbourne. In their hands will be precious cargo: Australia's first Nobel Peace Prize. The medal was awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) in 2017 in recognition of their work on the adoption of the global treaty to ban nuclear weapons.

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On the order of President Trump, the US Department of Defense is currently concluding a sweeping review of the United States’ nuclear policy – a “nuclear posture review” ­– expected to be released at the end of this month. But already now, the text has leaked and shows that the Trump administration will loosen constraints on the use of nuclear weapons and develop more “usable” nuclear warheads.

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See ICAN documents related to the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

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This year’s Nobel Peace Prize was presented to ICAN at a ceremony in Oslo, Norway, on 10 December in recognition of our work “to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons” and our “ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons”.

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On the eve of the adoption of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), the Italian Parliament passed a resolution instructing the Italian Government to explore the ratification of the legally binding ban on nuclear weapons.

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Australian-founded International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons urges support for UN treaty banning them.

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Al Jazeera's exclusive interview with the director of the anti-nuclear campaign that won the Nobel Peace Prize.

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2017 Nobel Peace Prize winner ICAN is calling for 'a different kind of debate around nuclear disarmament'.

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The Pope is praying for a world without nuclear arms. Pope Francis on Sunday offered a prayer for world leaders to collaborate on nuclear disarmament, calling it an essential step for expanding human rights. His comments come after President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have spent much of the year threatening each other with hints of a nuclear conflict.

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For centuries, following bloody conflicts, military leaders acknowledged that some weapons were simply too awful to be used, but those same militaries generally continued to use them.

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On 27 October 2016, the First Committee of the UN General Assembly adopted resolution L.41 to convene negotiations in 2017 on a “legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination”.

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The detailed voting result on Resolution L.41 in the United Nation's First Committee.

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The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has won the Nobel Peace Prize 2017.

ICAN was a vital actor in bringing the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons to the United Nations, where it was signed by 122 countries. The accord was largely symbolic as none of the world’s nuclear-armed nations signed it

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Heads of state and Foreign Ministers will sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons tomorrow, 20 September 2017, as the General Assembly of the United Nations opens in New York.

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Beatrice Fihn, the executive director of ICAN, delivered the following remarks at the signing ceremony for the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in New York on 20 September 2017:

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"Today, we are putting nuclear weapons in the same category as other unacceptable weapons. Like the conventions prohibiting chemical and biological weapons, landmines and cluster munitions, this treaty bans an entire category of weapons. It strengthens the norm that weapons that cause unacceptable harm for civilians cannot remain legal – and that nuclear weapons are no longer an exception to these norms."

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A large majority of Germans are in favour of Germany signing the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons that will be opened for signature on 20 September at the United Nations. A YouGov opinion poll commissioned by ICAN Germany showed that 71% of citizens in Germany think that Germany should join the treaty with 14% are against it.

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Early on the morning of 15 September, North Korea conducted another missile test. Although the payload of the missile is not yet known, the range of the test demonstrates that North Korea could reach Guam with this missile.

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In an op-ed in one of the largest Swedish newspapers, Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström announced her ambition to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

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The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will open for signature at UN Headquarters in New York on 20 September 2017, during the High-Level Segment of the 72^nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly, and will be a great moment for heads of state, foreign ministers and other representatives of governments to sign this historic treaty.

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On 6 and 9 August, the world will commemorate the 72nd anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This comes at a moment when a majority of governments around the world are preparing to sign the recently adopted Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

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After a decade-long effort by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), and 72 years after their invention, today states at the United Nations concluded negotiations and formally adopted the new treaty, which categorically prohibits nuclear weapons. Until now, nuclear weapons were the only weapons of mass destruction not yet prohibited despite the widespread catastrophic consequences that would result from any use or accidental detonation of these weapons.

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After a decade-long effort by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), and 72 years after their invention, today states at the United Nations formally adopted a treaty which categorically prohibits nuclear weapons.

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On 7 July 2017, the United Nations adopted a landmark agreement to ban nuclear weapons, known officially as the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Here we answer some frequently asked questions about how the treaty will operate.

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At the United Nations on Friday, an overwhelming majority of the world’s nations will decide – by acclamation or vote – whether to adopt a treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons.

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The world-renowned Chinese artist Ai Weiwei sent a message of support this week to delegates involved in the United Nations negotiations on a treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons. “I think this is a very important moment,” he said.

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On 15 June, a majority of the world's governments resumed negotiations at the United Nations on a treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons. Many expressed their hope to conclude the landmark international agreement by 7 July.

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Banning nuclear weapons isn't just about conference rooms and documents. The Women's March to Ban the Bomb will happen on Saturday 17 June. 

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The first draft of the United Nations treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons was released in Geneva, Switzerland, on 22 May. Elayne Whyte Gómez, the Costa Rican ambassador who is presiding over negotiations of the historic accord, presented the text to diplomats and members of civil society, before answering questions from the media.

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In the final week of March, representatives from more than 130 governments began work on a United Nations treaty to prohibit the most inhumane and destructive devices ever created: nuclear weapons. A large and diverse team of ICAN campaigners participated actively in the session.

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This week negotiations on a treaty to ban nuclear weapons under international law began in New York. This first negotiation session revealed that the 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.

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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.

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At the March session of the UN conference to negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, ICAN delivered four statements as a coalition.

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Kokatha nuclear test survivor, Sue Coleman-Haseldine, addressed more than 120 Governments gathered at the United Nations to negotiate a treaty to prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons from 27-31 March 2017.

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The treaty is being negotiated based on the recognition that the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons use is morally unacceptable and that the weapons themselves represent a clear danger to human security.

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American Ambassador to the United Nations and other opponents to the effort to ban nuclear weapons held an unusual protest press statement outside the treaty negotiations. In response, Beatrice Fihn, Executive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, released the following statement:

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On Monday, negotiations on a treaty to ban nuclear weapons in international law began in New York. The treaty is being negotiated based on the recognition that the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapon use is morally unacceptable and that the weapons themselves represent a significant risk to human security.

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In March of 2017, Religions for Peace and ICAN produced the Nuclear Ban Treaty Negotiation Handbook. Click here to download it directly. 

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Historic negotiations will take place at the United Nations in 2017 on a treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons. This booklet explains the potential impact of the treaty, and how the negotiations have come about.

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It is two and a half minutes to midnight. On 26 January, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the Doomsday Clock – a symbol conveying how close we are to the destruction of civilization with dangerous technologies – forward 30 seconds.

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On Friday 20 January, Donald Trump will be given control over the United States' nuclear arsenal, constituting 6,800 American nuclear weapons, several thousand of which are ready to be launched in minutes.

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On 23 December 2016, the UN General Assembly adopted a historic resolution to convene negotiations in 2017 on a treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons. The voting result was 113 nations in favour and 35 against, with 13 abstentions.

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The United Nations General Assembly today approved a historic resolution to launch negotiations in 2017 on a treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons. The vote follows a decision on 27 October by the General Assembly's First Committee – which deals with disarmament and international security matters – to begin work on the new treaty despite fervent opposition from some nuclear-armed nations.

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Here are some highlights of ICAN's campaign work in 2016.

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Sign the petition to join the hibakusha in saying "never again" to nuclear weapons.

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Eighteen banks are profiled in the Hall of Fame of the Don’t Bank on the Bomb, 2016 edition, strictly prohibiting any investment of any type in any kind of nuclear weapon producing company. Is your bank one of them?

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A breakdown of votes on resolution L.41 at the United Nations.

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The United States warned other NATO members that efforts to negotiate a treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons or to delegitimise nuclear deterrence "are fundamentally at odds with NATO's basic policies on deterrence".

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Brussels/Strasbourg. European Union’s legislature takes clear stance on upcoming negotiations on international treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons: the EU’s Member States should “support the convening” and “participate substantively” in its negotiation. 

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The United Nations' First Committee adopted a landmark resolution on 27 October to launch negotiations in 2017 on a treaty outlawing nuclear weapons. This historic decision heralds an end to two decades of paralysis in multilateral nuclear disarmament efforts.

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Fifteen Nobel Peace Prize laureates and two laureates in other fields call on the First Committee of the UN General Assembly to adopt draft resolution L.41 mandating negotiations on a treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons.

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Organisations representing hundreds of thousands of Australians have joined the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons in a call for the Australian government to support a growing global push to prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons.

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Faith-based organizations have united behind the call to begin negotiations in 2017 on a nuclear-weapon-ban treaty.

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This report, based on freedom of information research, describes Australia's obstructive role at the recently concluded UN working group on nuclear disarmament in Geneva, which recommended negotiations on a treaty banning nuclear weapons in 2017. Australia argues that US nuclear weapons are vital for its security, and thus it opposes a ban.

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A message from ICAN campaigner Setsuko Thurlow, a survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, an anti-nuclear activist and a retired social worker.

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How can a state that wields weapons of mass destruction – weapons that it has acknowledged have “catastrophic humanitarian consequences” – preach to others about doing no harm?

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On Thursday, 13 October, a cross-regional group of nations formally submitted a draft resolution to the First Committee of the UN General Assembly to establish a mandate for negotiations in 2017 on a “legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination”.

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On 14 October, ICAN, together with the permanent missions of Brazil and Guatemala to the UN, held a side event at UN headquarters in New York on the possible elements for a treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons. It also evaluated the potential impact of such a treaty on different states, from those that are nuclear-free to those that possess nuclear weapons or include them in their security doctrines.

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ICAN statement delivered to the First Committee of the United Nations in support of the resolution tabled by Mexico, Austria, Ireland, Brazil, Nigeria and South Africa, calling for negotiations to commence in 2017 on a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination.

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The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) today urged nations to act on the recommendation of the UN open-ended working group to convene negotiations in 2017 on a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons.

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A group of governments have submitted a draft UN General Assembly resolution to start negotiations on a treaty banning nuclear weapons.

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Austria’s foreign minister, Sebastian Kurz, announced on Wednesday that his country would join other UN member states in tabling a resolution next month to convene negotiations on a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons in 2017.

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Please note, this pocket guide is from 2016.  You will find more up-to-date information on the state of the nuclear-armed states' arsenals on this page. 

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In 2014, ICAN released this campaigners kit with the intention of providing campaigners with a toolbox exploring the different elements of international and national campaigning: from lobbying and research to media and social media activism. 

"Over the past few years, ICAN has grown exponentially and has become a stronger, broader, more professional campaign. We have achieved major results, and our successes have attracted more organizations willing to join our cause 

Other campaigns have paved the way and have strengthened the conviction that unacceptable weapons can and must be outlawed. Their successes have shown us what a coordinated coalition of organizations can achieve. This is the reason why we have asked successful campaigners and experts who have followed other processes to share the lessons they have learned with us.

This campaigners kit is a toolbox where we have explored different elements of international and national campaigning. We hope that their hands-on experience will be useful in your daily work."  

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This series of essays features African leaders and campaigners with their perspective on Africa’s relationship to nuclear weapons and role in banning them.

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This publication explains the impact of nuclear weapons in the Pacific Islands and the role of Pacific Island leaders in banning nuclear weapons.

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This compilation of essays by leading experts explains the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons: their impact on health, the environment and agriculture, and the economy and development. It considers these impacts within the context of international humanitarian law and through specific case studies.

Download the report.