The Appeal to End the Nuclear Weapons Threat to Humanity

We cannot hide from the threat that nuclear weapons pose to humanity and all life. These are not ordinary weapons, but instruments of mass annihilation that could destroy civilization and end all life on Earth.

Nuclear weapons are morally and legally unjustifiable. They destroy indiscriminately - soldiers and civilians; men, women and children; the aged and the newly born; the healthy and the infirm.

The obligation to achieve nuclear disarmament "in all its aspects," as unanimously affirmed by the International Court of Justice, is at the heart of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Ten years have now passed since the end of the Cold War, and yet nuclear weapons continue to cloud humanity's future. The only way to assure that nuclear weapons will not be used again is to abolish them.

We, therefore, call upon the leaders of the nations of the world and, in particular, the leaders of the nuclear weapons states to act now for the benefit of all humanity by taking the following steps:

1.Ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and reaffirm commitments to the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

2. De-alert all nuclear weapons and de-couple all nuclear warheads from their delivery vehicles.

3. Declare policies of No First Use of nuclear weapons against other nuclear weapons states and policies of No Use against non-nuclear weapons states.

4. Commence good faith negotiations to achieve a Nuclear Weapons Convention requiring the phased elimination of all nuclear weapons, with provisions for effective verification and enforcement.

5. Reallocate resources from the tens of billions of dollars currently being spent for maintaining nuclear arsenals to improving human health, education and welfare throughout the world.