NFLA Abolition 2000

Councils Urged to back the Abolition 2000 Campaign

Nuclear Free Local Authorities issued a briefing in February 1997 highlighting the progress in 1996 towards the abolition of nuclear weapons and calling for endorsement of the international Abolition 2000 Local Authorities Resolution. Abolition 2000, an international alliance of over 700 organisations, is lobbying the nuclear powers to sign a Convention by the year 2000 setting out a timetable for global nuclear disarmament.

The NFLA briefing summarises progress in 1996 with a nuclear weapon test ban, two new nuclear weapon free zones, international legal opinion declaring against nuclear weapons, and growing international opinion favouring disarmament.

Launching the briefing, former Chair, Leeds City Councillor Martin Hemingway stated:

"Local Government is affected daily by expenditure of between £1.5bn and £2bn each year on the maintenance of a UK nuclear weapon capability. This drives international nuclear proliferation, insecurity, and the risk of nuclear terrorism. It diverts public money away from where it is most needed - in housing, education and health. It does nothing to make the streets of our towns and cities safe and takes energy and resources away from tackling real international dangers and causes of future conflict - climate change, desertification, resource scarcity, population migration and xenophobia."

We appeal to all local authorities now to support the UK Abolition 2000 campaign which urges immediate international negotiations on the terms of a time bound Convention for a nuclear weapons free future."

ABOLITION 2000 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESOLUTION

The_____________________________Council noting that:

nuclear weapons continue to pose the most dangerous threat to the existence of the human species and the planet;
towns and cities have been targets of nuclear weapons throughout the Nuclear Age and remain vulnerable to the massive destructive effects of nuclear weapons;
the development and maintenance of nuclear arsenals are a huge burden on public finance, costing billions of pounds each year, when resources ought to be employed in rebuilding the infrastructure of our communities, improving the health and welfare of our citizens, and protecting and enhancing the quality of the environment;
the five declared nuclear weapons states (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) promised at the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review and Extension Conference in May 1995 to make "systematic and progressive efforts to reduce nuclear weapons globally, with the ultimate goal of eliminating these weapons";
the International Court of Justice ruling of July 1996 unanimously declared that "There exists an obligation to pursue in good faith and bring to a conclusion negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament in all its aspects under strict and effective international control.";
over sixty former Generals, Admirals and Air Chiefs world-wide (including representatives from all five declared nuclear weapon states) in December 1996 called for urgent efforts to secure a nuclear free world noting: "The dangers of proliferation, terrorism, and a new nuclear arms race render it necessary...There is no alternative";
and
the end of the Cold War provides an unprecedented opportunity to hand a precious gift to all future generations - end the nuclear weapons era.

RESOLVES:

to call upon the governments of all nuclear weapons states to begin negotiations immediately on a Nuclear Weapons Convention to prohibit and eliminate all nuclear weapons early in the next century, and to complete these negotiations by the year 2000;
to call for all nuclear weapons to be immediately taken off alert status, for all nuclear warheads to be separated from their delivery vehicles, and for the nuclear weapons states to agree to unconditional no first use of these weapons; and
to declare support for the further development of legally binding national and international Nuclear Weapon Free Zones throughout the world.

Based on a document prepared for the Abolition 2000 Global Campaign by the US Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. For more information contact:

The NFLA Secretariat,
Manchester City Council,
PO Box 463,
Town Hall,
Manchester
M60 3NY
Tel: + 44 161 234 3244
Fax: + 44 161 234 3379
Web Site: http://www.nuclearpolicy.info
or
Abolition 2000 - International Contact
c/o The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
Santa Barbara, CA 93108
E-mail: a2000@silcom.com
web-site: http://www.abolition2000uk.org