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Photos available free of charge, see below
Cf. WCC press update PU-04-59 of 16 November 2004
Cf . WCC press release PR-04-56 of 11 November 2004
After 1989, there was hope that the end of the Cold War would put a stop to the use of nuclear power as a guarantee of "global security ". Since then however, not only have the superpowers retained nuclear weapons, but additional states have developed nuclear capability, and the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) seems to be in serious crisis. In May 2005, this treaty will be reviewed in conference at the United Nations in New York, and the churches will need to focus their advocacy and education efforts during the coming months leading up to this conference.
"We must continue the work that has gone before, when church leaders were active in capturing the imagination of the people in hoping for a world without nuclear weapons, and congregations were actively standing up for nuclear disarmament,"said Victor Hsu, a senior advisor with Church World Service.
"People don’t feel the threat [of nuclear war], especially the younger generation," said Choice Ufuoma Okoro, originally from Nigeria and now working with the United Church of Canada.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) and its member churches have advocated against nuclear arms for decades. In its most recent statement on the NPT in February 2004, the WCC executive committee reaffirmed that “the only ultimate protection against nuclear weapons is their total elimination”. In March this year, a WCC delegation of church leaders visited a series of NATO non-nuclear states to argue for alternatives to nuclear deterrence.
The WCC position was echoed by speakers at a 16 November public seminar on the subject of "Churches’ quest for a nuclear arms-free world" held during the 14-19 November WCC International Affairs and Advocacy Week at the UN in New York.
Speakers included the UN under-secretary-general for Disarmament, Nobuyasu Abe, the secretary-general of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission (Blix Commission), Ambassador Henrik Sahlander, and the executive director of the Canadian organization Project Ploughshares, Dr Ernie Regehr. With their high-level expertise on nuclear weapons issues, the speakers were able to provide current information on the status of the NPT, and to place the role of the churches and other civil society actors within the context of the global political situation.
"Nuclear weapons contradict the very notion of life that churches hold sacred," said Henrik Sahlander. "Churches can work from this perspective to revive the work against nuclear weapons and advocate for support of the non-proliferation treaty."
"There are memorials in Nagasaki and Hiroshima that are very important to the Japanese people, but now the numbers of visitors to these memorials are declining, and this is tragic to me and my fellow Japanese citizens," said Nobuyasu Abe. "We must remind political leaders of the world to remember the effects of these bombs. Unfortunately this memory is fading."
Media contact person: Dr Laurence Konmla Bropleh, permanent representative, WCC UN Liaison Office, tel: 1 212- 867 5891, Mobile: 1 202 258 4166 email: [email protected]
Information on the 2004 WCC Advocacy Week is available at:
www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/international/advocweek04.html
More information on the work of the WCC UN Liaison Office (UNLO) in New York is available at
Photos from the 14-19 November International Advocacy Week are available on our website at:wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/international/advocweek-photos.html