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.

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.

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.

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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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:

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

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).

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.