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.

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.

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.

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.

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.