77e anniversaire des atrocités d'Hiroshima et de Nagasaki

Image: People at the Hiroshima shrine pay their respects to victims of the 1945 nuclear bomb blast

WE continue to remember and pray over the pain and suffering caused to Japan – 77 years after the world’s first nuclear attacks in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Today, the Hibakusha (nuclear survivors) are strong voices in the call for disarmament and nuclear justice. We acknowledge them and their brave efforts along with the victims of nuclear testing throughout the world and in the Pacific. A young Fijian mother and PCC’s Enabler for Youth Engagement and Empowerment, Olivia Baro presented a Joint Interfaith Statement at the 1 MSP in June, urging state parties to heed the voices of the Hibakusha. The statement – endorsed by 144 organizations from diverse faith traditions – reads: “Nuclear weapons are a tool of domination and violent coercion in a time when we urgently need to prioritize human security… We understand the interrelationship between justice and peace and we continue to commit ourselves to working for a world in which no community has the power to annihilate another, where the security of some does not depend on the insecurity of others.” This insecurity is magnified in the Pacific region where over 300 nuclear tests with a combined force equal to 10,000 Hiroshima bombs were detonated in the Marshall Islands, Kiritimati atoll in Kiribati, Johnston atoll, Mururoa and Fangataufa atolls of Maohi Nui and in Maralinga, Emu Field and the Montebello Islands of Australia. The exhaustive list of ongoing impacts includes increased rates of cancer and other diseases, displacement, loss and damage to environment and culture as well as the threat of nuclear waste seeping into the ocean from nuclear waste storage site, the Runit Dome in the Marshall Islands, as a result of climate change. Nuclear weapons continue to pose an existential threat to human health and environmental stability. They should no longer exist. As stated in the Interfaith Statement: “The resources currently spent on the development and maintenance of these weapons should be directed towards supporting the most vulnerable people and protecting the planet through investing in food, education, health care and climate justice.” As world leaders meet in New York this month for the Review of the Non-proliferation Treaty, we urge them to end the nuclear age by signing and ratifying the UN TPNW and promoting international cooperation for victim’s assistance and environmental remediation. No country or people should ever have the suffer the horrific impacts of nuclear weapons again.

Read the Joint Interfaith Statement from the 1MSP here: https://cdn2.assets-servd.host/…/TPNW-MSP-Joint…

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