The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament today welcomed the UN Security Council resolution passed unanimously after the special session on disarmament chaired by President Barack Obama.
Kate Hudson, Chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, said
“Today’s UN Security Council meeting indicates another step on the path towards nuclear disarmament. The unanimous support for dealing with disarmament and non-proliferation – as an overriding priority – is most welcome. There has been much pious rhetoric from world leaders in the past, but this time there are the beginnings of real-world action to back up the fine words.
“The unanimous support for creating the ‘conditions for a world without nuclear weapons’ must be followed through. The US-Russian disarmament talks, President Obama’s push for the US Congress to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and Gordon Brown’s Trident cutback are all steps that move us in the right direction. The support given to the development of nuclear weapon-free zones is excellent. These zones now cover the entire southern hemisphere and international support for their expansion into the Middle East and South Asia would be one potential route to bringing Israel, India and Pakistan into compliance with the norms of international law.”
“But more can and must be done to ensure that reductions transform into a global abolition process. And this can start at home. Britain can provide a much bigger boost to all these efforts by cancelling the replacement of Trident outright.”
Also this afternoon, Eric Joyce MP, the former Parliamentary aide to the Defence Secretary has called for Trident to be included in the upcoming Strategic Defence Review which will take place after the general election. Writing for the website of the pressure-group Compass, Joyce calls for Labour to ‘take the bull by the horns’ and engage in open public debate on the rationale for replacing the system.
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For further information and interviews please contact Ben Soffa, CND’s Press Officer, on 0207 7002350 or 07968 420859
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is one of Europe’s biggest single-issue peace campaigns, with over 35,000 members in the UK. CND campaigns for the abolition of all nuclear weapons everywhere.