Nuclear Ban Treaty Opens for Signature and 50 states sign!

In a week potentially overshadowed by Trump's threat of a nuclear war with North Korea, there are some reasons to be optimistic. The United Nations General Assembly has resumed and has held a signing ceremony for the new nuclear ban treaty.

On September 20, the treaty which was voted on in July, opened for signature. The treaty was a result of years of efforts from civil society and a conscious shift in focus from security and deterrence arguments to one's based on the humanitarian perspective. This humanitarian perspective argues that human beings will be the ones who suffer after a nuclear attack, and that no country would be able to adequately respond to a humanitarian catastrophe a nuclear attack would pose.

122 countries voted for the treaty to be passed back in July of this year, and so far 50 countries have signed the treaty. It will enter into force 90 days after 50 countries have ratified or acceded to it. See which countries have signed here.

Unsurprisingly, none of the 9 nuclear armed nations, including the UK have signed the treaty. In fact, the UK is amongst the states who staged a protest when the treaty was created and say they will never sign. 

Corbyn: 'Halt UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia'

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has renewed his call for a suspension of arms sales to Saudi Arabia. He told BBC Radio 4’s World at One recently that Britain should stop supplying arms which were being used in the war in Yemen. ‘I fully appreciate the size and enormity of the arms industry, and the need for working with industry to protect those jobs, in some cases by arms-conversion work, but above all we have to look at the consequences of a vast amount of arms sales to Saudi Arabia,’ he said.

London Arms Fair Protests

Over 100 peace activists were arrested during protests against the DSEI arms fair, 4-11 September, including Angie Zelter a high-profile Trident Ploughshares campaigner.  Angie, who was part of the anti-nuclear themed protest on Wednesday, told journalists:  ‘I said with my action that selling components of illegal weapons of mass destruction is not done in my name, she told journalists. ‘I consider that nuclear arms deals are part of an ongoing conspiracy to commit a war crime.’

DSEI, the Defence and Security Equipment International is the world’s largest arms fair which is held biennially at the ExCel Centre in London’s Docklands. Stop the Arms Fair network, which includes many peace movement groups, organised a week of protest again this year, with CND contingents from Yorkshire, Manchester and elsewhere taking part, as well as many from London CND.

Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, chair of Parliamentary CND, called the arms fair a ‘gross spectacle.  Chris Cole, who runs Drone Wars UK website, took part in Tuesday’s No Faith in War protests, said: ‘It’s important sometimes to put your body on the line and to try to stop the normalcy of the arms trade.'