Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War: Stop the War in Ukraine
This isn’t the first time we have faced the threat of nuclear annihilation. We faced it in the Cuban Missile crisis of 1962, and we faced it in the Cold War when the world was awash with 70,000 nuclear weapons. If we survive this current crisis, the Government of Canada must escalate efforts to abolish nuclear weapons and establish a system of common security.
The United Nations must not only represent national interests, it must represent the common good. A Citizens Assembly to advise the General Assembly could be a first step in balancing the power structure to benefit all.
We know what is needed. Now is the time to do it.
Why is it that tens of millions of people have worked for decades for peace and the abolition of nuclear weapons, but we have not succeeded? Could it be that the system is rigged against us? No matter what we do, only the Security Council of the United Nations has the power to abolish nuclear weapons and enforce that decision. The five permanent members of the Security Council were the great powers in 1945: United States, United Kingdom, France, China and the Soviet Union (now Russia). All of them have nuclear weapons and each of them has a veto. None of them want to give up that absolute power.
The survival of the world is now in the hands of five men and any one of them could push the button. •
The previous statement, from February 28, was published on the IPPNWC website.
