Time required: 15 minutes
On 2 June, print and send a letter to one or more parliamentarians in your country, and urge him or her to push your government to support or initiate negotiations for a treaty banning nuclear weapons. Parliamentarians around the world have a vital role to play in nuclear disarmament. Several national legislatures have already adopted resolutions calling for the immediate commencement of negotiations on a treaty banning nuclear weapons. More need to follow suit. To find the contact details of your local members of parliament, visit the legislature's website.
Sample letter
Dear [NAME OF POLITICIAN],
I am writing to you as a constituent concerned about the urgent need negotiate a treaty banning nuclear weapons. Despite the end of the Cold War more than two decades ago, there are still some 20,000 nuclear weapons in the world. If used, a single nuclear bomb would create a humanitarian catastrophe of unthinkable proportions within a few seconds.
In our view, an international treaty banning nuclear weapons is both achievable and urgently needed.
Such a treaty is achieveable because there is now growing international momentum for the idea of a global ban on nuclear weapons. 184 of the worldโs 193 countries do not possess nuclear weapons and 146 countries have already expressed its support for the idea of a treaty to ban and eliminate these weapons. Moreover, the Red Cross/Red Crescent movement recently adopted a resolution calling for states to start negotiations for such a treaty, and an increasing number of NGOs are now supporting this demand.
Such a treaty is also urgently needed because the risk of use and proliferation of nuclear weapons is today greater than ever. It can be little doubt that any use of nuclear weapons would cause a humanitarian and environmental catastrophe and radically deteriorate the international security situation. However, the tense situation in the Middle-East demonstrates more than anything that unless the vision of a world without nuclear weapons is supported by genuine and tangible international disarmament measures, new state and non-state actors will at some point develop nuclear weapons, and thereby increase the likelihood of their use.
The world is standing at a crossroads: Either we do nothing and face the prospect of a humanitarian catastrophe of unthinkable proportions. Or we start negotiations for a global treaty to ban nuclear weapons, preparing the ground for a realisation of a world without these weapons.
I therefore respectfully ask you to urge [NAME OF YOUR GOVERNMENT] to actively engage with likeminded governments committed to the idea of a treaty banning nuclear weapons to launch, without delay, an initiative to start the process of negotiating such a treaty.
Yours sincerely,
[YOUR NAME]
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