One of our main streams of work is to promote nuclear disarmament. Peace & Justice is one of over 500 partner organisations that collectively make up the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) who were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 for our work to promote the Ban Treaty.
On Friday (22nd Jan) campaigners across the globe celebrated the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) entering into force, making nukes illegal under international law. There are currently 86 signatories and 52 states parties.
The UK and other nuclear weapons states have not joined the treaty, and therefore are not subject to it. However, as more and more countries accede to the treaty it will become harder and harder for the countries that possess nuclear weapons or rely on them for security (such as NATO countries) to continue to justify their position. Most of the countries that have not yet ratified the treaty are planning to do so and many are very close to completing the process.
The tide is turning on nuclear weapons and the entry into force of the treaty signals the beginning of the end of their end.
It’s time for the UK to get on the right side of history. Peace & Justice and other ICAN partners in Scotland are calling on the UK government to join the Treaty and disarm the Trident nuclear weapons based in Scotland.
On 22 January Peace & Justice and the other ICAN Partners in the UK wrote to Boris Johnson calling on the UK to join the treaty. You can keep up with all the work being done on this important issue by all the partners in Scotland at www.nuclearban.scot/ .
Peace & Justice is currently working in several ways to promote the Ban Treaty. We initiated and are active in the Don’t Bank on the Bomb Scotland network along with SCND and Medact, campaigning for banks and pension funds to divest from nuclear weapons. Read more about the Don’t Bank on the Bomb Scotland campaign and how you can get involved here. https://nukedivestmentscotland.org/
Our Origami Peace Cranes project has brought together hundreds of volunteers to make 140,000 that will form the core of a Peace Cranes exhibition at the Just Festival at St John’s Church during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Edinburgh in August of 2021. Peace Cranes expresses the hope for nuclear disarmemnt and will raise awareness of the Ban Treaty. YOU can read more about the Peace Cranes project and watch videos of pre-exhibition events here.
Peace & Justice also continues to press for the UK to disarm Trident unilaterally and to leave NATO, which is a nuclear armed alliance. We have taken that position since we were founded as Edinburgh Peace & Justice Centre in 1980, working actively to promote nuclear disarmament in concert with Scottish CND and others, organising numerous, marches, rallies and other campaigning events as part of Scotlands for Peace and with the Scrap Trident coalition.