Invitation to endorse Nuclear Taboo from Norm to Law

Posted: 28th April 2023

Dear CND Members,

We invite you to personally endorse Nuclear Taboo, from Norm to Law, a Declaration of Public Conscience which was launched recently in follow-up to the affirmation made by the G20 Leaders in Bali that “the threat of use or use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible.” (See Breakthrough at the G20 Summit). 

Despite making this statement in Bali, the nuclear armed members of the G20 (including China, France, India, Russia, UK and USA) – as well as the nuclear allied members - continue to threaten the use of nuclear weapons in general terms and in regional conflicts in Europe (Russia-Ukraine War), East Asia (conflicts involving China, USA, South Korea, North Korea and Japan) and South Asia (India-Pakistan conflict).

The Declaration calls for the inadmissibility of threat or use of nuclear weapons to be affirmed as a Dictate of International Law, and for all states (especially the nuclear-armed and allied countries) to comply fully by ensuring that their security policies and practices rule-out the initiation of nuclear war including any first-use of nuclear weapons.

The Declaration and list of endorsers will be presented to the G7 Summit in Hiroshima (May 19-21), to the G20 Summit in Delhi (September 9-10), to the NPT Prep Com in Vienna (August) and to the UN General Assembly and Security Council in October, 2023.

The Declaration of Public Conscience (also available in French and Italian) has already been endorsed by a number of CND members, and over 700 other political, academic, military and civil society leaders from the UK and around the world including:

  • Baroness Sue Miller, Member of the House of Lords, Deputy-Chair of the UK All-Party Group on Non-proliferation and Global Security; 
  • Commander Robert Forsyth, Commander UK Royal Navy (Retired); 
  • Martin Tiller, Executive member of Christian CND;
  • Dan Ellsberg, Whistleblower (The Pentagon Papers), political analyst and author (The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner);
  • Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Prize 1976;
  • Dave Webb, Yorkshire CND;
  • Ela Gandhi, Chairperson Gandhi Development Trust. Grand-daughter of Mahatma Gandhi;
  • Brian Jones, CND Cymru – the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in Wales;
  • Nicholas Grief, Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Kent, UK;
  • John Polanyi, Founding Chair of Canadian Pugwash, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, 1986;
  • Colin Archer, Vice-President, Movement for the Abolition of War;
  • Angie Zelter, Founder of Trident Ploughshares and a Right Livelihood Laureate (‘Alternative Nobel Peace Prize’)  
  • Dr Elizabeth Waterston, MEDACT – UK affiliate of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War; 
  • Rae Street, CND;
  • Fiona McOwan, WILPF UK Scottish Branch;
  • Roger Horne, Co-Chair, Christian CND;
  • General Bernard Norlain, President of Initiatives pour le Désarmement Nucléaire. Former Air Defense Commander and Air Combat Commander of the French Air Force;
  • Tadatoshi Akiba, Former Mayor of Hiroshima. Former President of Mayors for Peace;
  • Air Chief Marshal Shashindra Pal Tyagi, Retired Chief of Indian Air Force;
  • Peter Gloyns, Salisbury CND;
  • Hon Gareth Evans, Former Foreign Minister of Australia; 
  • Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle, Member, UK House of Lords;
  • Prof. Frank N. von Hippel, Professor of Public and International Affairs, emeritus, Princeton University;
  • Prof Giorgio Parisi, Professor Emeritus at “La Sapienza” Rome. 2021 Nobel Laureate in Physics;
  • Hon Erkki Tuomioja, Former Foreign Minister of Finland, Chairman of Historians without Borders; 
  • Prof. Richard Falk, Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University;
  • Stephen M. Colecchi, Former Head of the Office of International Justice and Peace, U.S. Conf. of Catholic Bishops; 
  • Kenji Urata, Vice-President of the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms;
  • Hon Anatoliy Grytsenko, Ukraine Defence Minister (2005-2007), Chairman of the National Security & Defense Committee (2007-2012);
  • Tadashi Inuzuka, Co-Chair, World Federalist Movement;
  • Guy Quinlan, President, Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy;
  • Justice Göran Lambertz, Former Justice of the Supreme Court, Sweden; 
  • Bishop Gunnar Johan Stålsett, Bishop of Oslo, Former Member of the Nobel Peace Committee;  
  • Ambassador Rolf Ekeus, Director of the United Nations Special Commission on Iraq (1991-97). Former Chairman of SIPRI Stockholm International Peace Research Institute;
  • Prof. Ana María Cetto, Professor of the Institute of Physics, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Mexico’s Woman of the Year 2003;
  • Ambassador Enkhsaikhan Jargalsaikhan, President of Blue Banner and Former Ambassador of Mongolia to the UN; 
  • Baroness Ruth Lister, Uk House of Lords;
  • Margareta Kiener Nellen, Board Member of PeaceWomen Across the Globe, Former parliamentarian and Head of the Swiss Delegation to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly;
  • Sean Conner, Executive Director of International Peace Bureau;
  • Uta Zapf, Former Chair of the Bundestag (German Parliament) Subcommittee on Disarmament, Arms Control and Nonproliferation; 
  • Helen Jaccard,Veterans For Peace / Golden Rule Project Manager;
  • Kevin Martin, Executive Director of Peace Action USA;
  • Achin Vanaik, Founder-member of the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (India); 
  • Dr Keith Suter, Member of the Club of Rome, Co-Chair of the International Peoples’ Tribunal on Nuclear Weapons and the Destruction of Human Civilisation; 
  • Mary Yelenick, UN NGO Rep Pax Christi International;
  • Tariq Rauf, Former Head of Nuclear Verification and Security Policy, International Atomic Energy Agency;
    and many more… 

 We hope that you can join us in endorsing this Declaration. 

Best regards
Alyn Ware
On behalf of the NoFirstUse Global Coordinating Committee

www.nofirstuse.global

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