RUSSIAN THREATS TO use nuclear weapons in its war against Ukraine have made clear that the world urgently needs an inclusive, reality-based plan for nuclear safety: the total elimination of nuclear weapons. Faith communities have long recognized the moral depravity of these weapons and the unacceptable humanitarian consequences their use would pose.
People of faith have worked with the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) to establish the first comprehensive international treaty to ban nuclear weapons, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). In June, the 61 states parties (nations) and 86 signatories of the treaty convened in Vienna for their first meeting since the treaty came into legal force in January 2021. Key topics of discussion were adding signatories to “universalize” the treaty, implementation, and reinforcement of norms against nuclear weapons. The meeting was critical to advancing key articles of the treaty, particularly assistance to victims of nuclear weapons and testing, remediation of contaminated environments, and setting deadlines for the elimination of nuclear weapons for nuclear-armed states that join the treaty.
As Alexander Kmentt, the Austrian president of the Vienna conference, put it, universalization means not only encouraging new ratifications but also “promoting the arguments on which the treaty is based, namely the humanitarian consequences of and the risks associated with nuclear weapons.”
In August, parties to another international nuclear weapons treaty, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), are gathering in New York. While the United States is not yet a party to the TPNW, it is a party to the non-proliferation treaty, and thus signed on to the commitment “to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race ... and to nuclear disarmament.” The parties to the NPT should reiterate this commitment to the total elimination of nuclear weapons. They should also endorse the work to highlight the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons use. And they should recognize the compatibility between the NPT and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. As Kmentt put it, “States parties [to the TPNW] are very clear that they want a strong message on the complementarity of the treaty with the nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation regime, in particular the NPT.”
Faith communities can help people understand more clearly the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons and the futility of so-called “tactical” nuclear weapons (which can carry much larger payloads than those used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki). “At a moment where one man is using nuclear weapons to blackmail the world while he commits war crimes,” said ICAN’s executive director Beatrice Fihn, the meeting in Vienna (and subsequent NPT meetings) are opportunities “where the world responds and creates the global nuclear disarmament plan.”
People of faith can help push the U.S. government toward the disarmament goals to which it has already committed and work with others around the world to implement a secure global disarmament process. As Russia’s attack on Ukraine has shown, nuclear weapons do not prevent war. In fact, they risk escalating it beyond anyone’s control. We are at a threshold moment—the church can make a difference.
Ruth Rohde is policy and research intern for the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons in Geneva.
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