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PRESS RELEASE
Diplomats at the NPT told to 'respect the will of the majority' and abolish
nuclear weapons
4 May 2005: for immediate release
Yoko Ono, the Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and seven other representatives
of civil society across the world addressed diplomats at the UN today.
Diplomats were urged to ensure that real steps towards the total abolition
of all nuclear weapons everywhere were made at this months Non-proliferation
Treaty Conference.
Yoko Ono called on delegates to ‘imagine peace,’ and Tadatoshi
Akiba, the Mayor of Hiroshima and President of the Mayors for Peace Campaign,
set out the Mayors for Peace 2020 vision campaign and the steps to a nuclear-weapon-free
world by the year 2020. Mayor Akiba told delegates, “We no longer
accept the nuclear status quo. The time has come for the will of the majority
to be respected.”
Hiroshi Taka of the Japan Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs handed
over the Abolition Now petition. Over 5 million people, across the world,
have signed the petition. It calls for the governments of the nuclear
weapons states to neither use, threaten to use nor to develop nuclear
weapons, and to take immediate steps for their abolition; and the governments
of all countries to take action for the conclusion of an international
treaty for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Janet Bloomfield, international coordinator of the Abolition Now campaign
and Vice President of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament Brought a message
to the Conference from Nobel Peace Prize winner Professor Joseph Rotblat
calling on diplomats to “above all remember your humanity.”
Kate Hudson, Chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament said,
“NGO delegations, Mayors and victims of the nuclear bombs dropped
on Japan have come to the UN to represent world opinion. The message the
world is sending to this conference is clear, we want to rid the world
of nuclear weapons. They are immoral and illegal and countries that persist
in maintaining their arsenals are the real rogue states. We must ensure
that disarmament stays at the heart of the NPT. Without total nuclear
disarmament we will never have true peace and security.”
end
Notes to Editor:
1. For further information and interviews please contact Ruth Tanner CND's
Press & Communications Officer on +44 (0)7968 420859
2 .For CND’s coverage of the NPT - http://press.cnduk.org/
3. UN NPT official website - http://www.un.org/events/npt2005/index.html
4. There are presently 763 cities in 110 countries that are part of the
Mayors for Peace campaign. http://www.pcf.city.hiroshima.jp/mayors/english/campaign/2020vision.html
5. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is one of Europe’s
biggest single-issue peace campaigns, with over 32,000 members in the
UK. CND campaigns for the abolition of all nuclear weapons everywhere.
www.cnduk.org
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