On Monday (March 27, 2017), the United Nations commences negotiations on a nuclear weapons prohibition treaty. According to the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA), a group of experts in international law and nuclear weapons, the treaty should affirm the illegality of the threat and use of nuclear
Nuclear-armed states currently spend US$100 billion collectively on nuclear weapons programs every year. The corporations manufacturing the weapons and their delivery systems are a major driver of the nuclear arms race. They actively lobby their parliaments and governments to continue allocating the funds to nuclear weapons. And they support think
UNFOLD ZERO and PNND held the fourth in a series of Consultations on nuclear disarmament negotiations and parliamentary action in New York on Feb 15, the day before the United Nations commenced negotiations on a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons (‘ban treaty’). The consultation included diplomats, lawyers and
The world is 30 seconds closer to nuclear annihilation, according to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists who today moved the hands of the ‘Doomsday Clock’ to 2.5 minutes to midnight. Speaking at a press conference in Washington DC, Lawrence Krauss, a theoretical physicist who chairs the Bulletin of the Atomic
On January 23, UNFOLD ZERO, Basel Peace Office, Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (PNND) and the World Future Council braved the cold to hold a 3D art event in the the Place des Nations in front of the UN in Geneva. The event attracted both tourists and locals who
On Monday January 23, UN Secretary-General António Guterres announced his commitment to the abolition of nuclear weapons. Speaking by video message to the opening of the Conference on Disarmament at the United Nations in Geneva, Mr Guterres said: “As Secretary-General, I am firmly resolved to actively pursue the abolition of
On January 24, 1946, the United Nations General Assembly adopted by consensus its very first resolution Resolution 1 (I), which established a commission of the UN Security Council to ensure ‘the elimination from national armaments of atomic weapons and all other major weapons adaptable to mass destruction.’ UNFOLD ZERO highlights
On December 3, 2016, the UN General Assembly adopted ground-breaking Resolution 71/71, supported by over 140 countries, calling for the start of negotiations on an international treaty to prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons, and affirming its decision to hold a High Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament no later than 2018
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon this week called on governments and civil society to better utilize the UN system in order to resolve conflicts peacefully, and to facilitate arms control and disarmament. ‘The world is over-armed and peace is underfunded,’ said Mr Ban speaking at New York University for what is
On August 29, 1949 the Soviet Union detonated its first nuclear weapons test, code-named First Lightning in the eastern region of Kazakhstan. The nuclear chain reaction deposited radioactive fallout throughout the region. Over the next 40 years, the Soviet Union detonated another 455 nuclear weapons in Kazakhstan – causing horrific