Celebrate the 22nd of January 2021

The nuclear weapon ban treaty will enter into force on Friday, 22 January. That is the day nuclear weapons will be illegal under international law!    

ICAN

Celebrate the 22nd of January in your conversations and communications that day and beyond! This is also an important day to shine a spotlight on Australia's opposition to the treaty, and to raise up the demand to sign and ratify.  

You will find the ICAN briefing paper here and two social media tiles attached, which you are welcome to use on the 22nd of January onwards.

You can take action:

• Email action for federal parliamentarians "The nuclear weapons problem won't go away under Biden": https://icanaustralia.good.do/jointheban/action/   
• Photo action for our virtual march: https://icanw.org.au/action/eif/  

There are also events being planned in several cities and online for this historic day, go to the ICAN website if you want to be involved or for anything else regarding the entry into force of the ban!  

BIO note from Bishop Philip Huggins

I have been involved in the pursuit of Nuclear Disarmament since our children were very young. I was guided to see then that good parenting involved, not only attention to their safety and well-being at home, but also attention to global risk factors, especially the risk posed by the existence of nuclear weapons.

As a consequence, I was an NGO representative at the 1980’s UN Special Session on Disarmament in New York and thereafter have had many national and international involvements in the pursuit of nuclear disarmament.

Poignantly, vividly, I recall, for example, Japanese people in white presenting a petition signed by a million plus to the then UN Secretary-General, pleading from the experience of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  I recall the slow, patient negotiations at the Conference on Disarmament; the steps forward and backwards as regards the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty; the better days after ‘glasnost’; the recent undermining and demolishing of disarmament measures in the Trump years; the continuing risk of both further horizontal and verticle proliferation of nuclear weapons...

Now I have grandchildren and the same drive, like every other loving parent and grandparent on the planet, to ensure they are safe.

Accordingly, as an Anglican Bishop and as current President of the NCCA we persist with our advocacy, understanding that peace is both a divine gift and also is our task as peacemakers.

On January 22 we have a moment of celebration. It will be a time of encouragement and renewal for the day we hope and pray to see  - when there is a nuclear- free world!

Bishop Philip Huggins

NCCA President.