by Nancy Eberg, GNH Peace Council
During the weekend of April 29-May 2, a series of incredible events transpired in NYC. On Friday and Saturday, nearly 1000 participants from around the world attended a conference on the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons at Riverside Church. Hoping to influence the UN Review Conference on the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons held the following week, the workshop tracks were abolition, peace, economic justice/human needs, and environmental sustainability. Experts in all fields participated, including locals from the Greater New Haven Peace Council—Henry Lowendorf and Al Marder. Henry, along with leaders of the World and Canadian Peace Councils, spoke about struggles against global imperialism; Al, with Cora Weiss, president of the Hague Appeal for Peace, and former Ambassador Sylvester Rowe of Sierra Leone discussed the Luarca Declaration that peace is a human right.
Three plenaries were held that included such noted speakers as Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General; Terumi Tanaka, head of the organization of bomb survivors; Mayor Akiba of Hiroshima; Princeton professor Zia Mian; noted author on nukes Joseph Gerson; and president of the World Peace Council, Socorro Gomes. The conference hoped to greatly expand the momentum started by Obama’s Prague speech and the negotiations between him and Medvedov for the new START Treaty. Highlights of the conference were Ban Ki-moon’s affirmation that he has proposed a nuclear weapons convention toward nuclear abolition and supports the Japanese timetable of 2020 for total abolition – commitments that should have an energizing effect on abolition proponents.
The Sunday march from Times Square to the UN was aimed in part to deliver the 7 million signatures collected worldwide to abolish nuclear weapons. Since Japan was the only country to experience the devastating bomb effects on an urban population, it sent nearly 2000 marchers. Estimates of total attendance varied from 10-15,000 (American newspapers) to 25,000 (Japanese newspapers). In spite of the unseasonably hot, humid, 90-degree weather and too-long pre-rally, spirits soared. Jubilant marchers sang and chanted, passing out innumerable origami peace cranes. Hope for a world without nuclear weapons permeated the group. It was an unforgettable experience that hopefully will have positive results.
The plenary sessions were live streamed during the conference, and most are now available for viewing (the closing session with Ban Ki-moon will be available soon).
For more on the speech by Ban Ki-moon, see the United Nations’ release.
See pictures taken by New Haven’s Henry Lowendorf here.
