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“Negotiate a legally-binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons”. Do it “in 2017”. Make sure the negotiations are “open to all states” and include civil society. These are key points in a much-disputed report adopted last week by a United Nations working group of more than 100 countries meeting in Geneva.

“Negociar un instrumento jurídicamente vinculante para prohibir las armas nucleares”; hacerlo en “en 2017”; garantizar que las negociaciones estén “abiertas a todos los Estados” e incluyan a la sociedad civil. Estos son los puntos clave de un controvertido informe que fue aprobado la semana pasada por un grupo de trabajo de las Naciones Unidas formado por más de 100 países. A pesar del boicot de las potencias nucleares y de la fuerte resistencia de sus aliados, el informe que contiene esta histórica recomendación fue aprobado por un margen de tres a uno con un amplio apoyo interregional.

This year 6 and 9 August mark the 71st anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, two Japanese cities destroyed by atomic bombs with a combined death toll estimated at more than 225,000 people.

This year a “Sunday of Prayer for the Peaceful Reunification of the Korean Peninsula” will be observed on 14 August by the WCC with the peoples and churches of Korea and of the world. The WCC invites all member churches and people of good will to join in prayer, to achieve reconciliation and healing of the divided Korean peninsula, and to foster an environment that will see peaceful reunification in the peninsula by the conclusion of a peace treaty.

This year's “Sunday of Prayer for the Peaceful Reunification of the Korean Peninsula” will be observed on 14 August. The special day of prayer follows a visit from a delegation of the National Council of Churches in Korea and the National Council of Churches USA with USA policymakers. The delegation is advocating for a permanent peace treaty between North and South Korea.

On the occasion of US President Barack Obama’s visit to the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 27 May, WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit sent greetings, noting that this is a time when signs of peace and justice are sorely needed.

When Stephen Sidorak speaks about “A Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace to Japan on a Matter of Life and Death” his voice rings with passion, commitment and regret along with a yearning that nuclear weapons must never be used in anger again.

Cuando Stephen Sidorak habla de “Una peregrinación de justicia y paz a Japón por una cuestión de vida o muerte” en su voz resuena una mezcla de pasión, determinación y tristeza junto con el deseo de que las armas nucleares nunca vuelvan a ser instrumentos de la ira.

Following the recent nuclear test conducted by North Korea, the WCC is calling on all parties involved in the current situation on the Korean peninsula – especially South Korea, North Korea, the USA, Japan and China – to “invest in initiatives to reduce tensions, to promote dialogue and to encourage negotiations for an end to the suspended state of war, and for peaceful co-existence on the Korean peninsula, rather than measures that increase the risk of catastrophic conflict“, according to WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit.

Important votes at the United Nations (UN) in early November give an indication of how much of the world wants new action to eliminate nuclear weapons, and how determined the main nuclear powers and their allies are to resist such long-overdue change.

Una gran cantidad de votos emitidos en las Naciones Unidas a principios de noviembre indica qué proporción del mundo desea adoptar nuevas medidas para eliminar las armas nucleares, y en qué grado están las principales potencias nucleares y sus aliados dispuestos a resistir a ese cambio necesario desde hace mucho tiempo.

The WCC welcomed an initiative by the South African government to propose a resolution on “Ethical Imperatives for a Nuclear-weapons-free World” for adoption at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Adebayo Anthony Kehinde leads an African group supporting ICAN, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. Its interfaith campaign is especially significant on the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombings in Japan.

The nuclear attack on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945 revealed the brutality and dangerous logic of war, money and power, according to an Indigenous Anglican bishop from Canada.

“The first thing that is required of us is to live the courage of our convictions. For the World Council of Churches, our conviction is that the world must be freed of nuclear weapons,” said the Rev. Dr Sang Chang, WCC president for Asia, in her address at the Nuclear Disarmament Symposium held in Hiroshima.

"Lo primero que se nos pide es que tengamos el valor de vivir de acuerdo con nuestras convicciones. Para el CMI nuestra convicción es que el mundo debe estar libre de armas nucleares", dijo la Rev. Dr. Sang Chang, presidenta del CMI para Asia, en su discurso en Hiroshima.

Seventy years after nuclear fireballs exploded over two Japanese cities, an ecumenical group of pilgrims has come to Hiroshima to listen to those who survived and renew the struggle against their own countries’ continued reliance on nuclear weapons.

As an ecumenical delegation to Japan participates in Hiroshima Day observances on the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing, the WCC has published a liturgical resource and invites churches around the world to join in prayer.

Bishop Dr Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, chair of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) and a member of the church leaders’ pilgrimage to Japan on the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombings, pressed the case for the Humanitarian Pledge against nuclear weapons at the Hiroshima Day rally on 6 August 2015.

El obispo Dr. Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, presidente del Consejo de la Iglesia Evangélica de Alemania y uno de los líderes religiosos que están haciendo una peregrinación en Japón con ocasión del 70º aniversario de los bombardeos atómicos, defendió el Compromiso humanitario contra las armas nucleares.