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First, the good news: In May, a new United Nations working group began meeting in Geneva “to develop proposals to take forward multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations for the achievement and maintenance of a world without nuclear weapons.” The first ever UN High-Level Meeting on Nuclear Disarmament will take place on September 26 in New York. In March, Norway hosted a conference in Oslo on the Humanitarian Impacts of Nuclear Weapons, with 127 governments in attendance. A follow-on conference is scheduled in Mexico in early 2014. The 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference unanimously agreed to hold a conference on a Middle East Zone free of Nuclear and other Weapons of Mass Destruction in 2012, to be co-convened by the United States.
Now for the bad news: The United States boycotted the Oslo conference and is refusing to participate in the UN disarmament working group. The Middle East conference was postponed indefinitely. And the Administration has been silent on the High-Level Disarmament Meeting.
Beginning with a letter to the White House on June 6, two dozen peace and disarmament groups launched a campaign calling for good faith US participation in these multilateral forums. And on June 24, the US Conference of Mayors unanimously adopted a resolution Calling for US leadership in Global Elimination of Nuclear Weapons and Redirection of Military Spending to Domestic Needs.
Click here to sign our petition to win US participation in the new multilateral disarmament forums. And please share the petition with your friends.
When people lead, our leaders will follow!
Dear President Obama,
The world is urging the United States to join in multilateral efforts to achieve the global elimination of nuclear weapons. The time is right. As you said in Berlin, “so long as nuclear weapons exist, we are not truly safe.”
We call on the United States to:
- Participate, with you speaking, in the September 26, 2013 United Nations High-Level Meeting on Nuclear Disarmament
- Participate in the UN working group on achieving a world free of nuclear weapons
- Pursue vigorously convening of the postponed conference on a Middle East Zone free of
- Weapons of Mass Destruction
- Attend the 2014 conference in Mexico on the humanitarian impacts of nuclear weapons
The world and our country must prioritize meeting human needs over weapons of mass destruction.
Click here to sign the petition.
Take a moment and read the letter to President Obama and the US Conference of Mayors resolution.