UN Secretary General Speaks on the eve of NPT Review Conference

I was privileged on Saturday to hear U.N. Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon. The General Secretary addressed an international conference of peace and justice and environmental activists. The conference was held at the historic Riverside Church in New York City and is a push for a world free of nuclear weapons. This coming week, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference begins its work and concludes with a report to the United Nations. Peace and justice activists from Japan and around the world came to New York to push world leaders and the NPT Review Committee to embrace the vision of a nuclear free world.

As we sat and listened to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, we heard his encouragement and support as he embraced the vision of a world without nuclear weapons. Speaking to nearly 1,000 participants from around 30 countries, he told us “to work harder” and “not to give up.” The General Secretary said: “Let it heed our call. Disarm Now!” He continued, “Our shared vision is within reach— a nuclear-free world.” And that “nuclear disarmament is my top priority.”

Secretary General Ki-moon noted the significance of the Riverside Church hosting Nelson Mandela’s first speech in the U.S. and being the place where the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous speech against the Vietnam war.

Regarding the only nuclear weapons ever used in war, the two dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan, he stated that, “It must never be repeated.”

“The time for change is now— We cannot afford to fail again,” in NPT negotiations. Instead negotiations should move towards “concluding a nuclear weapons convention. These negotiations are long overdue,” he concluded.

Ban Ki-Moon’s speech was the keynote address to a two-day conference, “For a Nuclear Free, Peaceful, Just and Sustainable World,” which was organized by a network of peace and nuclear weapons abolition organizations in the U.S., Europe, Japan, and Israel, including the Fellowship of Reconciliation (USA).

Yesterday, a rally followed in Times Square attended by more than eight thousand. We then marched to the United Nations calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons.