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Public health and human rights remain woefully unprotected from nuclear disasters. This is a key assessment of a “Human Rights and Natural Disasters” workshop, three years after the Fukushima disaster and 30 years since Chernobyl. The workshop was hosted by the WCC on 28 February in Geneva, Switzerland

The WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit has welcomed the interim agreement between Iran and six world powers reached in Geneva, Switzerland on 24 November. Tveit prayed for the agreement to become “a sign of hope in a region where many yearn for peace.”

In preparation for the WCC 10th Assembly in Busan, Republic of Korea (South Korea), pastors and peace activists in that nation are holding a 40-day “fasting prayer” in front of the Busan City Hall. They are protesting the dangers of nuclear radiation and asking to shut down South Korea’s oldest and incident-prone Kori Nuclear Power Plant, some 20 kilometres from the venue of the WCC assembly.

The WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit has congratulated the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for recognition of its life-saving work on elimination of chemical weapons, especially in Syria, through the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize 2013.

World leaders at the United Nations last week backed two steps in relation to the Arms Trade Treaty, promoted by churches, to make people safer through new laws to control deadly weapons.

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.

Governments sign new Arms Trade Treaty on first day

The 10th Assembly of the Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC), meeting from 3 to 10 March in Honiara, the Solomon Islands, adopted a series of resolutions on public issues ranging from climate change and resettlement, through seabed mining and nuclear weaponry, to the self-determination of West Papua and Maohi Nui (or Tahiti).

In an unprecedented show of global public concern that included strong religious voices, 500 civil society representatives and 132 governments met from 2 to 5 March in Oslo, Norway, to address the humanitarian effects of nuclear weapons.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit has expressed “grave concern” over both the recent nuclear test on the Korean peninsula and responses to it.

By Jonathan Frerichs (*)

The World Council of Churches (WCC) is urging the NATO summit in Chicago 20-21 May to “lead by example” and withdraw NATO nuclear weapons still deployed in Europe more than two decades after the close of the Cold War.

On the first anniversary of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident in Japan, the World Council of Churches (WCC) expressed solidarity with the victims and encouraging governments to take concrete steps to avoid such tragedies in future.

Two international actions to curb the potential use of cluster bombs and nuclear weapons have been welcomed by the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC).

By Jonathan Frerichs (*)

“The Pacific is a region that displays many warm and strong expressions of peace,’’ World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit said in a speech to the Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC) 50th anniversary celebration held in Samoa this past week.

Each August 6 and 9 since 1945 there is a profound moment of sorrow and reason for hope when the world remembers the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 66 years ago during World War II.

The Chernobyl disaster of 25 years ago remains a human and environmental tragedy so severe the consequences will continue for centuries. Its anniversary this week is especially timely given the current emergency in Japan which echoes some of Chernobyl’s hard lessons. To learn them would honour those who suffer from the past and could save lives in the future.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) and church organizations on both sides of the Atlantic are urging NATO to remove all United States nuclear weapons still based in Europe and end their role in the alliance’s policy. The 200 or so nuclear weapons involved are “remnants of Cold War strategies” the ecumenical organizations say in joint letters. “NATO should rethink deterrence and security cooperation in Europe”, they say, and make good on NATO’s new commitment last year to “creating the conditions for a world without nuclear weapons”.