Nobel Women's Initiative

On July 31st and August 1st, Nobel Women's Initiative partner Pax Christi New Mexico brought together peace activists from around the US ahead of the 64th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Over 150 people took part in a weekend of events at the construction site of the atomic bomb in Los Alamos, New Mexico, to call for disarmament and the abolition of nuclear weapons.

Seventeen Nobel Peace Laureates have issued a declaration calling upon political leaders and citizens worldwide to act immediately to eliminate nuclear weapons.  The Hiroshima-Nagasaki Declaration urges leaders to choose non-proliferation over nuclear brinkmanship, and citizens to press their leaders to ban nuclear weapons.

With just a year until the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference convenes at the United Nations  April 26 - May 21, 2010, we the undersigned Nobel Peace Laureates renew the call for a complete ban on the production, testing, stockpiling and deployment of nuclear weapons.

The declaration was initiated by Peace Laureate, Mairead Maguire, after a visit to the a-bombed city of Hiroshima, Japan.  Signatories include President Jose Ramos-Horta of East Timor, President Oscar Arias Sánchez from Costa Rica,  former president Frederik Willem de Klerk from South Africa, President Kim Dae-jung from South Korea, and Wangari Maathai from Kenya.

View the declaration here, as well as video and written messages from the signatories.

The U.S. Obama administration has agreed to engage Iran on its nuclear program without the pre-conditions set forth by the previous administration.

The shift in strategy diverges from former Bush administration's insistence that Tehran suspend all uranian enrichment activities prior to U.S. engagement. Instead, President Obama has joined European allies in the

Nobel Peace Laureate Jody Williams asks for President Obama's commitment in the international ban on land mines and cluster munitions to be equal to his leadership on nuclear disarmament. Read Williams' editorial for the Boston Globe, Ban Land Mines and Cluster Bombs .

Countries including Laos, Lebanon and the United Kingdom gathered today in Oslo to sign the first global treaty on banning cluster bombs. This historic occasion coincides with the 11-year anniversary of Mine Ban Treaty, signed on December 3, 1997 in Ottawa, Canada. At the last minute, Afghanistan agreed to join the treaty. Soraj Ghulam Habib, 17, who lost both legs to a cluster munition, and other campaigners had urged President Karzai to do so and were jubilant today in Oslo.

The Convention on Cluster Munitions prohibits the use, development, production, stockpiling and transfer of cluster munitions, which have killed and injured civilians in more than 30 countries. Like chemical, biological, and antipersonnel landmine conventions before, this treaty bans an entire category of weapons. Yet it sets the highest standard to date in international law for assistance to victims and their communities.

“Even in today’s difficult world, we proved once again that the model of partnerships between governments and civil society can bring about much needed change,” says Williams, who won the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with the ICBL for her role in promoting the mine ban. “Governments are starting to see that together we can achieve a safer world for all.” For the treaty to enter into force it must be ratified by 30 countries. Four countries (the Holy See, Ireland, Norway and Sierra Leone) signed and ratified the treaty simultaneously today, launching the process.

Williams and other activists are quick to point out that the road ahead is long. “This is a time to celebrate, but the work doesn’t stop here,” says Steve Goose, Director of the Arms division at Human Rights Watch.

“It is time for countries to turn these binding words on paper into a reality on the ground”.

Williams and the Nobel Women’s Initiative have supported the process leading up to the signing of the treaty, and encourage all governments to ratify as soon as possible.

Cluster Munition Coalition news and videos

International Campaign to Ban Landmines

WILPF Sweden's publication launched today "Cluster Munitions and Gender - It Takes More Than A Ban". Down the pdf here.

Media clips:

International Herald Tribune, 3 December 2008

guardian.co.uk, 3 December 2008

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Read more about Cluster Munitions  on our Disarmament Issues page

Above right, women clearance experts Lamis Khalil Zein and Mirna Mahmmoud Aashour with NPA in Lebanon. At left, Roman Dolgov, an activist from Russia, sends a 'wish you were here' postcard to the Russian government, which has not joined the treaty. Photos by Mary Wareham. See more here.

<!--[if !vml]-->Ten Nobel Laureates, including the six women Peace Laureates of the Nobel Women's Initiative, are raising their voices to call for justice for Mordechai Vanunu, an Israeli man who has been confined within Israel since 1986 for following his conscience and telling the world that Israel had a nuclear weapons program. Israeli security insists Vanunu is a risk to national security, so for more than 22 years the Israeli courts and government have refused to let him leave the country or speak to foreign media. On 8 July Mordechai will return to court to appeal a new 6 months prison sentence for speaking to foreign media.

Below Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire writes about Vanunu’s case and urges the Israeli government to uphold it obligations under United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and allow Vanunu to leave Israel. The Nobel Laureates of the Nobel Women's Initiative join Maguire in calling for justice and freedom for Mordechai Vanunu.

Time to Let Vanunu Go Now
by
Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire

In 1986 a young Israeli man, called Mordechai Vanunu, followed his conscience and told the world that Israel had a nuclear weapons program. He was convicted of espionage and treason and given an 18 years sentence. After serving this (12 of which were in solitary confinement) Mordechai Vanunu was released. In April 2004 about 80 people from around the world went to welcome him out of prison. Unbelievably, upon his release Mordechai was served with severe restrictions, which forbade him many basic civil liberties including his right to leave Israel, to speak to foreigners and foreign media and his travel within Israel restricted.

Each year around April 21st, he receives a letter from the Prime Minister renewing restrictions and Mordechai starts, yet again, the process of appealing these restrictions through the Israeli court. Most recently he has been charged with breaking the restrictions, by talking to foreign media, and given a 6 months prison sentence which when he appealed was set as community service. On 8 July 2008, he will appear before an Israeli court regarding this service and his case.

Four years since leaving Ashkelon prison, (and 22 years since he told about Israeli nuclear weapons) Mordechai Vanunu lives in modest accommodations in East Jerusalem, confined within a few miles radius, unable to earn a living, unaware of what to do to gain his freedom, unable to leave Israel, his life in danger, and left wondering if the Israeli security will ever agree to let him leave the country. They say he is a threat to national security, but everyone knows that it is 22 years since Mordechai worked in the Dimona Nuclear Plant, and the nuclear industry has moved on. A well-known Israeli nuclear scientist has testified that Mordechai can know nothing after such a long period, yet Israeli security insists he is a risk to national security, and Israeli court and government, refuse to let him go thereby compounding an injustice, and breaking international laws.

Governments around the world have let Mordechai Vanunu down. They remain silent when they should be demanding the Israeli Government uphold it obligations under United Nations Declaration of Human Rights (UNDHR) and allow Vanunu to leave. (Everyone has the right to leave any country including their own and to return to their country – Article 13 – 2 UNDHR).

So will Mordechai remain in Israel until he dies, or can anything be done to gain his freedom? I believe now Mordechai Vanunu’s freedom rests in the hands of the Israeli people themselves. Some years ago I asked a young Israeli friend why she thought Israel was holding Mordechai. She replied simply, ‘because our government does not trust its own people’ and she added ‘if the Israeli people would demand his release, it might be possible that he would be free to leave Israel and get on with his life.’ I don’t know if she is right or wrong, I don’t know the Israeli mind or politics well enough to guess, but what I do know is that in the Jewish faith and tradition, there is a great deal of emphasis put on justice and doing what is right. I can now only hope and pray that on 8 July 2008, that some Israeli voices will be raised to call for justice for Mordechai Vanunu, who has paid the high price of 22 years of his life for following his conscience, and whether you hate or love Mordechai Vanunu, to be fair you have got to admit that he has suffered enough and it’s time to let him go NOW.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION

• Read Mordechai's Letter to the Editors concerning his upcoming appeal

• Learn more about Mordechai Vanunu on his website - Recent News, History, Photos, Poems and much more

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