Please consider attending our presentation, about abolishing nuclear weapons this Friday.
We will meet in person at our office (Room 203 of the College Mall Building at 3535 College Road, upstairs above the Fuji Japanese Steakhouse) and via Zoom.
Join Zoom Meeting:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83400667036?pwd=aEtvQXU2cUwyZER4NUZqQ0taUEh1UT09
Meeting ID: 834 0066 7036
Passcode: 116449
We will be showing a 20-minute video interview with Beatrice Fihn, the recently retired director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). She describes the campaign that led to adoption of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Her discussion is both insightful and inspiring.
Also, we will consider the existing 1986 AK State policy for reduction of nuclear warheads, and how we can continue advocacy for Alaska as a nuclear weapons free zone. We will also look at what circumpolar efforts already exist for establishing an Arctic Nuclear Weapons Free Zone.
(from https://www.un.org/nwfz/sites/www.un.org.nwfz/files/nwfz-postcard-2010_page_1.jpg, 29 March 2023)
Hope to see you!
Background Information:
Although we have been living under the threat of nuclear annihilation for almost 80 years, the dangers have greatly increased recently with two nuclear powers facing off over Ukraine. Considering the tensions extant in the world today it is appropriate for the citizenry to become concerned about nuclear weapons again, especially since we now have tools to eliminate them entirely.
1) TPNW
A little over a year ago, on 22 January 2021, the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons entered into force. Currently, 92 of the 193 UN member nations have signed the treaty and 68 have taken the further step of ratifying it to become states parties to the treaty. This treaty is largely the result of intense effort by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), of which the Alaska Peace Center is a partner organization. Although the nations holding nuclear weapons are reluctant to acknowledge this treaty, they can be shamed by world opinion into following the treaty’s protocols and eventually accepting the treaty. This has happened before with respect to land mines and chemical weapons. One of the tools available to support ICAN is the Cities Appeal, by which local governments pass a resolution declaring support for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and calling on the national government to sign and ratify it. Anchorage has passed such a resolution, joining 70 other cities and 5 states by doing so. Other Alaskan communities should consider this action.
2) Alaska Statute for reduction of nuclear weapons
In the 1980’s there was a great deal of concern about nuclear weapons. In Alaska, as the result of hard work by many people, a voter initiative concerning nuclear weapons was passed in 1986 by 57% of the vote. This initiative is now codified as Alaska Statute Sec. 44.99.120 and 125.
Statute 44.99.120 states, among other things, that it is the policy of the State of Alaska “to promote a mutual and verifiable freeze followed by reductions in nuclear warheads, missiles, and other delivery systems in order to halt the nuclear arms race and to reduce the risk of nuclear war.” Statute 44.99.125 directs the governor to “conduct the affairs of state and carry out state programs in conformity with this policy.”
3) Nuclear Weapon Free Zones
Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zones are another tool by which people of a large region of the Earth have eliminated the use, threat of use, and transport of nuclear weapons within specified boundaries. There are 5 of these, 7 counting Mongolia and Antarctica, that cover most of the Southern Hemisphere as well as a large part of central Asia. In addition, there are international treaties prohibiting nuclear weapons on the sea floor and in outer space. Canadian Pugwash, led by Adele Buckley, has been working toward an Arctic Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zone for years, with support from the Inuit Circumpolar Council (see page 16) and others. Using the 1986 Alaska Statute, can we work toward creating an Alaska nuclear-weapons-free zone? This would add momentum toward an Arctic NWFZ.
Alaska Peace Center 