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August 29th marks the UN International Day Against Nuclear Tests. Instituted in 2009 to commemorate the closure of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site in Kazakhstan on 29 August 1991. Kazakhstan and civil society - including ICAN - are using this year’s commemoration to work for a nuclear weapons free world with a series of meetings on disarmament and nuclear justice in Astana
Three days of government and civil society meetings on nuclear disarmament and nuclear testing
On 27-28 August, Kazakhstan is hosting a meeting for all countries that are part of Nuclear Weapons Free Zones (NWFZ), to foster cooperation and explore how they can contribute to efforts to respond to existing and emerging security threats related to nuclear weapons.
Read ICAN's statement to the NWFZ meeting
3/4 As ICAN’s ED Melissa Parke stated in her speech, NWFZs have shown that security is achieved through cooperation, not the development and stockpiling of horrifically destructive weapons. https://t.co/icNPI85YcH
— ICAN (@nuclearban) August 27, 2024
Within the framework of the International Day against Nuclear Tests, #Astana hosted the critical workshop on fostering cooperation and enhancing consultation, discussing the mechanisms among the existing nuclear-weapons-free-zones (#NWFZs) on Aug. 27. pic.twitter.com/2aUkcl5RRu
— The Astana Times (@TheAstanaTimes) August 27, 2024
On 29 August, ICAN together with partners Peace Boat, Steppe Organization for Peace (STOP) and the Center for International Security and Policy (CISP) will host a Nuclear Survivors Forum. The forum is where survivors from Kazakhstan will meet with survivors from Japan, South Korea, the Marshall Islands and a UK veteran to share their experiences, build community and develop shared policy demands. Survivors from other affected communities have sent messages of support to the forum participants.
August 29, marks the UN International Day Against Nuclear Tests - today we partner with @nuclearban @STOP_nuclear456 @cisp_astana to host a Nuclear Survivors Forum this week to share experiences, build community and develop shared policy demands.
— Peace Boat（NGOピースボート） (@peace_boat) August 29, 2024
More: https://t.co/rSLpPug3xm pic.twitter.com/f8DVnhXVVb
The Nuclear Survivors Forum adopted a joint outcome document with recommendations for implementing victim assistance and environmental remediation. Read the outcome document here.
Alongside the survivors forum, a youth forum titled From the Pacific to the Steppes: Addressing the Nuclear Sins of the Past and Advancing Justice, organised by the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation in cooperation with local partners will take place. There will also be a screening of the documentary I Want to Live On: The Untold Stories of the Polygon with testimonies from people impacted by the tests at Semipalatinsk, organised by CISP and Soka Gakkai International.
The history and impacts of nuclear testing
From 1949 to 1989, an estimated 456 Soviet nuclear tests, including 116 atmospheric tests, were carried out at the Semipalatinsk test site, with devastating long-term consequences for human health and the environment. Globally, the nine nuclear armed states tested around 2000 nuclear weapons between 1945 and 2017. Most of them were tested on colonies, Indigenous lands or the lands of politically marginalised groups, a long way away from capitals where the decisions to detonate these nuclear weapons were taken.
Nuclear tests have caused enormous harm to people and the environment. The communities and states affected by nuclear weapons are still struggling for recognition of the harms done to them, and for assistance to deal with the consequences, including cancers, infertility and birth defects, displacement, economic and social marginalisation, psychological harm, and others.
International law and norms against nuclear testing
The International Day Against Nuclear Tests commemorates the closing of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site on 29th August 1991 and is also an occasion to promote the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and to call for its entry into force. Adopted in 1996, it is the first international treaty to ban all nuclear tests. It has 187 states which have signed, and 178 which have ratified, but has not entered into force yet because of the failure of nine states, upon whose ratification the entry into force of the treaty depends: China, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, the Russian Federation and the United States. In 2023, Russia revoked its ratification but remained a signatory of the treaty. Despite the fact that it has not entered into force, the CTBT has led to a strong norm and de facto moratorium on nuclear testing.
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which entered into force in January 2021, clearly prohibits nuclear weapons tests and strengthens the norm and legal framework against nuclear tests. To address the harms caused by nuclear weapons use and testing, the TPNW States Parties decided at the last Meeting of States Parties to look into creating an international trust fund to provide resources for victim assistance and environmental remediation.
Kazakhstan and Kiribati, two states affected by nuclear testing, are co-chairing the working group of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) on Articles 6 and 7 on victim assistance, environmental remediation and international cooperation and assistance. Read more about the working group’s efforts here.
This series of events in Astana contribute to the global understanding of the horrors of nuclear testing as well as the power of international laws and norms to prevent future harms.