This week marks the 73rd anniversary of the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which killed more 210,000 lives and maimed many others. In the years that followed many of the survivors suffered cancer, leukemia and other damaging side-effects of the radiation.
At UNI Global Union’s World Congress in Liverpool recently, the UNI family once again showed its commitment to a world without nuclear arms.
UNI has a strong connection with Nagasaki and the peace movement, holding its world congress in the city in 2010, in which the two thousand participants effectively became peace ambassadors, having better understood the horrors of the atomic bombings through meeting with the survivors, the Hibakusha.
On July 7th, 2017, the UN adopted the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. This historic treaty bans nuclear weapons and all activities related to them.The #nuclearban will enter into force when 50 countries sign and ratify the treaty. World leaders must heed the calls of Hibakusha, and of concerned citizens around the world, for a nuclear-weapon-free future. UNI is a supporter of both ICAN which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 for being the catalyst driving the Treaty and the IPB which is the oldest peace organisation in the world and also a winner of the Prize.
“Each person had a name. Each person was loved by someone. Let us ensure that their deaths were not in vain.”
– Setsuko Thurlow, survivor of the August 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima
Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, December 2017
Watch this powerful UNI video underlying the threats to world peace.
