A global disarmament plan from "hand grenades to H-bombs" has been unveiled in Geneva by UN chief Antonio Guterres. He warned that a single human error with old or new arms could eliminate "entire cities."
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UN Secretary General Guterres unveiled his 88-page paper Thursday, saying the cancellation of the US-North Korean summit in Singapore next month underscored that governments must stop thinking "backwards."
"We are living in dangerous times," Guterres told his Geneva University student audience, warning that arms competition was increasing as governments "poured resources" into updating old weapon systems and developing new ones, striving for "quality rather than quantity."
Leaders had a responsibility to minimize risk and the disarmament agenda should range "from hand grenades to H-bombs," Guterres insisted.
Eliminating nuclear weapons remained the UN's highest priority but such efforts were in severe crisis, he said.
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
The Swedish Academy awarded the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize to ICAN. DW tells you about the grasssroots organization and what they are doing to stop nuclear proliferation.
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What is ICAN?
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons came to life only ten years before winning the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize. Officially formed in Vienna on the sidelines of a nuclear non-proliferation conference, the non-profit functions as a global umbrella organization that unites groups working towards the total elimination of nuclear weapons. ICAN has 468 partner groups in 101 countries.
The perfect 10th birthday present
In naming ICAN as the Nobel Prize recipient (above), the Norwegian Nobel Committee highlighted the Geneva-based organization's "work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons." An ICAN spokesperson said it was "elated" to have won the prestigious award.
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Focusing on the human risks
In its work to totally ban nuclear weapons, ICAN highlights their high humanitarian costs and their potential to unleash total environmental, medical and ecological descruction. It earned a significant victory when the UN adopted a new nuclear treaty in July 2017. However. ICAN's President Beatrice Fihn (above) has insisted that its work won't end until all nuclear weapons are gone.
Image: Reuters/D. Balibouse
A nuclear era?
The 2017 Nobel award reflects the return of nuclear escalations to the front burner of international politics, in large part due to the increasingly active nuclear ambitions of North Korea and the standoff between Donald Trump and Iran over the 2015 nuclear deal. However, ICAN's nuclear non-proliferation efforts were praised early on, including by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2012.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B. Pedersen
Worldwide support
The Geneva-based ICAN has tens of thousands of activists working around the world, including a German branch in Berlin. It's high-profile supporters include singer and artists Yoko Ono, the Dalai Lama and 1984 Nobel Peace Prize winner and anti-apartheid campaigner Desmond Tutu.
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Deliberate releases of disease carriers could be "many times more devastating" than natural pandemics such as West Africa's past Ebola outbreak, he added.
And, major outbreaks of conflict were likely to be preceded by massive cyber attacks on infrastructures with "serious consequences" for all.
Still stockpiled since the Cold War were 15,000 nuclear weapons, Guterres reminded his audience.
"Hundreds are ready to be launched within minutes. We are one mechanical, electronic or human error away from a catastrophe that could eradicate entire cities from the map," Guterres warned.
Particularly, the US and Russia must resolve their disarmament issues and commit to his new agenda based on three priorities, said Guterres: "disarmament to save humanity, disarmament that saves lives, and disarmament for future generations."
In war-ravaged Syria, a UN fact-finding mission had examined 83 incidents of alleged chemical weapons use, determining likelihood in more than 14 cases, Guterres said.
"Each use is a crime under international law. Their widespread use may also constitute a crimes against humanity," Guterres postulated.
