It looks like a ban on nuclear weapons is coming soon, says Erin Hunt of Mines Action Canada.
She was our eyes and ears on the ground at the Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons (HINW) from December 8-9 and the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons’ (ICAN) Civil Society Forum from December 6-7, 2014.
Before the conference, ICAN brought together 600 nuclear disarmament campaigners to learn about the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons, gain campaigning skills and get motivated.
Over the next two days, 158 states and almost 300 members of civil society heard scientific information and testimonies from victims of nuclear weapons. After exploring the risks, 44 states called for a prohibition on these inhumane weapons.
Austria took the lead throughout the conference and closed with a compelling “Austrian Pledge.” In the pledge Austria committed to work to “fill the legal gap for the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons” and “to cooperate with all stakeholders to achieve this goal.” It also called on states to reaffirm their commitment to disarmament and to take concrete measures to reduce stocks of nuclear weapons.
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The Austrian pledge to ban nuclear weapons, Rebecca Johnson, openDemocracy, 15 December, 2014.
Read the Austrian Pledge.