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“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.

«La première chose qu'on attend de nous, c'est d'avoir le courage de nos convictions. Au COE, nous avons pour conviction que le monde doit être débarrassé de l'arme nucléaire», a déclaré la pasteure Sang Chang, présidente du COE pour l'Asie.

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.

Le président du Conseil de l’Église évangélique d’Allemagne, participant au pèlerinage de responsables d’Églises au Japon organisé à l’occasion des commémorations du 70e anniversaire des bombardements atomiques, a défendu la cause de l’Engagement humanitaire contre les armes nucléaires.

“It is time to abandon all support for retaining nuclear weapons. It is time to refuse to accept that the mass destruction of other people can be a legitimate form of protection of ourselves,” said Bishop Mary Ann Swenson at the Peace Memorial Cathedral in Hiroshima.

«Il est temps d’abandonner tout soutien au maintien de l’arme nucléaire. Il est temps de ne plus accepter que la destruction massive d’autres peuples puisse être une forme légitime de protection pour nous-mêmes», a déclaré l’évêque Mary Ann Swenson lors d’un service anglican-catholique du souvenir pour la paix à la cathédrale catholique du mémorial de la paix d’Hiroshima, au Japon, le 5 août.

Church leaders from seven countries currently making historic choices for or against outlawing nuclear weapons will embark on a pilgrimage in early August to the two Japanese cities that were decimated by atomic bombs 70 years ago.

Au début d'août, des responsables d'Églises de sept pays qui se trouvent face au choix historique de mettre hors la loi ou non les armes nucléaires vont entreprendre un pèlerinage vers les deux villes japonaises dévastées par des bombes atomiques il y a 70 ans.

Four weeks of negotiations on nuclear weapons came to a close on Friday 22 May, as the Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty ended without a formal agreement. Despite the outcome, a bright new prospect towards a world without nuclear weapons has emerged in the form of a Humanitarian Pledge, now endorsed by 107 states, which promises “to fill the legal gap for the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons”.

“Nuclear weapons are incompatible with the values upheld by our respective faith traditions”, representatives of some 50 Christian, Buddhist, Muslim and Jewish organizations said on 1 May. The inter-religious statement came in a joint call to the 191 governments participating in the world’s largest disarmament treaty. The call, co-sponsored by the WCC, was made during civil society presentations to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in New York City.

«Les armes nucléaires sont incompatibles avec les valeurs que défendent nos traditions religieuses respectives», ont affirmé les représentants d’une cinquantaine d’organisations issues des traditions chrétienne, bouddhiste, musulmane et juive. La déclaration interreligieuse constitue un appel commun adressé aux 191 États parties au plus grand traité de désarmement au monde. L’appel, présenté entre autres par le Conseil œcuménique des Églises (COE), a été lancé lors de la séance d’interventions de la société civile à la Conférence des Parties chargée d’examiner le Traité sur la non-prolifération des armes nucléaires (TNP), à New York.

After a concerted examination of the evidence presented at the Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons and two earlier conferences, 44 of the states present called for a ban on nuclear weapons. The host government Austria added momentum with a specific, cooperative pledge to “fill the legal gap for the prohibition of nuclear weapons” and eliminate them.

A statement issued by the 4th Global Inter-religious Conference on Article 9 has been received with appreciation by the WCC.

At the 4th Global Inter-religious Conference in Tokyo, Japan, the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit expressed grave concern at the Japanese government’s initiative to reinterpret or change Article 9 of the Japanese constitution.

It was nearly 70 years ago on 6 and 9 August 1945 that the atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These are tragedies that are to be remembered and must never happen again, Isabel Apawo Phiri, associate and acting general secretary of the WCC, said.

Sexual slavery, resistance and women’s demand for justice were the focus of a recent event hosted by the WCC in Geneva, Switzerland, featuring representatives of the Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan.

Events in Northeast Asia this year “dramatize how much the region and the world still live in the shadow of mass destruction”, the WCC general secretary said in a comment on the 68th anniversary this week of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. “The God of life calls all of us to take up [the survivors’] tireless cry and make certain that a Hiroshima or Nagasaki bombing can never happen again.”

Talk about peace on the Korean peninsula part of discussions at ecumenical consultation on peace and security issues in Asia.