International Day Against Nuclear Tests

Event Date: 29th August 2020
Location: Internet 11.05 BST

UNFOLD ZERO invites you to take one minute on August 29th to commemorate the International Day Against Nuclear Tests.

The day was established by the United Nations in 2009 to highlight the destructive impact of nuclear testing on human health and the environment, and to support a complete ban on nuclear testing through the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). The day also highlights the connections between nuclear tests and a destabilising nuclear arms race.
Click here for a video message about the day
 
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The Atom Project and One Minute commemoration

Since 2013, the ATOM Project, an initiative led by surviving victims of Soviet nuclear tests, has been requesting citizens around the world to commemorate the day with one minute silence at 11:05am their local time.

“11:05 am was chosen because at this point the clock hands show a V, which stands for victory”, says Karipbek Kuyukov, Honorary Ambassador of the ATOM Project and a second generation victim of nuclear tests. “This moment and the V-shaped angle are meant to signify a victory of common sense over fear and a victory for global efforts towards a nuclear-weapons-free world.”

After taking a moments silence, we encourage you to sign the ATOM Project petition supporting the CTBT and a nuclear weapons free world.
 
Karipbek Kuyukov at the opening of his art exhibition in London commemroating the International Day Against Nuclear Tests in 2019. Mr Kuyukov was born without arms, but has become an accomplished artist painting with his toes and mouth.

The PLANET Act to prevent new nuclear tests

Earlier this year the Trump Administration indicated that they were considering resuming nuclear testing. In response, Senator Ed Markey, Co-President of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (PNND), has introduced the Preserving Leadership Against Nuclear Explosives Testing (PLANET) Act into the U.S. Senate. The act, if adopted, would ‘deny Trump administration funds to break the generation-old moratorium on nuclear testing.’ The act does not yet have sufficient support to be adopted.
 

Parliamentary commemoration of August 29

PNND Co-President Bill Kidd has introduced a motion (S5M-22553) into the Scottish Parliament observing the 2020 International Day Against Nuclear Tests. The motion highlights ‘the effects of nuclear weapon test explosions or any other nuclear explosions and the need for their cessation as one of the means of achieving the goal of a nuclear-weapon-free world”, and recognises that the resolution was initiated by Kazakhstan together with a large number of co-sponsors with a view to commemorating the closure of the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test site on 29 August 1991.’
 

Nuclear legacy and rights of future generations – UN Human Rights Office

‘States across the Pacific must come together and show international solidarity to ensure the region’s past nuclear legacy does not endanger the human rights of future generations,’ the UN Human Rights Office for the Pacific said in a statement marking the International Day Against Nuclear Tests released in Suva, Fiji today.

‘Nearly 2,000 nuclear tests have taken place across the world since the dawn of the nuclear age in July 1945, particularly in the Pacific region. The tests have displaced people from their ancestral homes, and radioactive contamination has led to serious health problems,’ said Thomas Hunecke, the OHCHR Officer-in-Charge for the Pacific.

‘Nuclear tests carried out across the Pacific – including waters off Australia, French Polynesia, Kiribati, and the Marshall Islands – have negatively impacted the rights of people living near test sites, especially their right to health; cases of thyroid disease, cancer, psychological trauma and mental health issues have all been documented.’The Runit Dome covering radioactive nuclear debris from nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands. Hunecke said climate change was compounding the dangers from past testing, in particular at the Marshall Islands’ Runit Dome, a concrete structure built by the United States decades ago to contain waste from atomic bomb tests.

“The Runit Dome, which is now under increased pressure from climate change and rising sea levels, is said to be leaking and could eventually spill its toxic contents into the Pacific Ocean,” Hunecke said. “This is a stark reminder that the international community, and specifically States responsible for nuclear testing, need to unite to take sustainable bilateral and multilateral action.”

Click here for the full statement of the UN Human Rights Office for the Pacific. For further information on the Runit Dome, see Climate change could crack open ‘nuclear coffin’ in Pacific, New York Post, November 13, 2019.Yours sincerely
UNFOLD ZERO