"No More Hiroshimas”, a call for urgent nuclear dialogue as conflict risks rise

STATEMENT: The risk of nuclear catastrophe is higher than at any time since the Cold War. Leaders are failing to uphold international law, and eroding basic norms. We are regressing into a world in which the rule of law is being replaced by rule by power, with a destabilising new nuclear arms race.

We have come to Hiroshima to honour the victims of the atomic bombing in 1945. The upcoming 80th anniversary should compel all leaders to revitalise efforts towards nuclear disarmame

nt. Instead, we are deeply concerned at the trivialisation of the use of nuclear weapons.

We reaffirm our support for full abolition of nuclear weapons. To reach this, we need a progressive global disarmament agenda based on four essential pillars: every nuclear-armed state should adopt a “no first use” doctrine, as many weapons as possible should be taken off high-alert status, a dramatic and urgent reduction in the number of weapons that are operationally deployed, and decreasing numbers to a maximum of 500 warheads each for the USA, Russia and China.

The recent fighting between India and Pakistan, two nuclear-armed states, underscores the terrifying risk of how quickly conflict can escalate to the point of a nuclear exchange.

President Putin’s contempt for the basic norms of state sovereignty and territorial integrity is driving a new arms race across Europe. Uncertainty around President Trump’s commitment to the USA’s traditional defence alliances is also accelerating rearmament.

Putting nuclear weapons at the heart of national defence perpetuates the dangerous myth that nuclear deterrence keeps us safe. Today’s weapons have a combined destructive capability of close to 100,000 Hiroshima or Nagasaki-sized bombs. One single bomb dropped in Hiroshima claimed around 140,000 victims by the end of 1945. Today’s collective arsenal has the capacity to destroy human civilisation.