Legislators join nuclear war prevention call at the G7 Summit: Markey’s Letter to President Biden

PNND members and other legislators (mayors and parliamentarians) from Group of 7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK and USA) and from around the world have joined a civil society declaration being presented to the G7 Summit in Hiroshima calling on the G7 leaders to prevent nuclear war and advance nuclear abolition by reaffirming and implementing the agreement made at the G20 Summit in Bali that “The use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible.”

The civil society message, made in the form of a Declaration of Public Conscience entitled Nuclear Taboo from Norm to Law, calls for the inadmissibility of the threat or use of nuclear weapons to be enshrined as a dictate of international law in order to rule-out any initiation of nuclear war and to pave the way for the global abolition of nuclear weapons. 

The Declaration also calls on the nuclear armed and allied states - which includes all members of the G7 - to implement this norm in their security policies, starting with the adoption of no-first-use commitments. 

“Hibakusha and citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki know the misery and inhumanity of the atomic bombs from our own experiences,” says Tadatoshi Akiba (Japan), former Mayor of Hiroshima. “That is why they, and we, have been strongly urging the disuse of nuclear weapons for the sake of human beings, and of this planet, in any circumstances.”

“Key security issues of today, whether that be climate change, conflict, poverty or pandemics cannot be resolved by threats or even actual use of nuclear weapons," says Saber Chowdhury MP (Bangladesh) PNND Co-President and Honorary President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. "On the contrary, such weapons make these situations much worse and threaten current and future generations. This Declaration of Public Conscience reinforces the urgency and highlights the legal obligation and public call to eliminate the nuclear threat, now.”“In a time when the nuclear threat is used again and again it's even more urgent to come to a common agreement on no-first-use. The use of nuclear arms will effectively only create losers,” says Bodil Valero (Sweden), PNND Council Member, Chair of the Defense and Security Wing of G100 (Global Network of Women Leaders) and former Member of the European Parliament. “Those who suffer the nuclear attack, those who will suffer the retaliation, and all others when radioactivity spreads around the globe.”

The Declaration is organized by NoFirstUse Global - an international coalition of 90 civil society organizations - and has been endorsed by over 1000 legislators, youth, academics/experts, religious leaders and civil society leaders from around the world.

It was presented to the Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs (host of the G7 Summit) by PNND and NoFirstUse Global in a private meeting in Tokyo yesterday (May 17). It is now being circulated to Summit participants in Hiroshima.

For further information and supporting quotes please see G7 Hiroshima Summit should reaffirm the Nuclear Taboo.

Senator Markey’s letter to President Bident on the G7 Summit

On May 4, PNND Co-President Senator Ed Markey and three other Democratic Congress members, sent a joint congressional letter to President Biden urging the President to use the G7 Summit in Hiroshima to advance specific steps for nuclear disarmament.

The lawmaker’s letter urges the President to center the world’s attention on the importance of nuclear arms control and disarmament and encourages President Biden to advance the following elements in his address:

• Acknowledge the tremendous, long-lasting human suffering that the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings inflicted on the hibakusha;
• Reiterate that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought, and emphasize that, as the G-20 agreed in November 2022, nuclear weapons use and threat of use are “inadmissible;”
• Reaffirm the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons;
• Announce and commit to concrete steps to prevent a new arms race, guard against nuclear weapons use, and advance nuclear disarmament; and
• Reiterate his invitation to Russian President Vladimir Putin to hold serious talks aimed at restoring full implementation of New START and negotiating a new nuclear arms control framework to follow New START.

PNND presented a copy of the joint congressional letter to the Japan Foreign Ministry during our meeting with them in Tokyo on May 17, along with a copy of Nuclear Taboo from Norm to Law.