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Students exchange views on nuclear abolition in closing day at U.N. Conference on Disarmament Issues

by Kyosuke Mizukawa, Staff Writer

The U.N. Conference on Disarmament Issues held a special session with high school students and students from overseas on August 28. Diplomats overseeing nuclear policies and experts in the field have been participating in this three-day conference in Hiroshima, 70 years after the atomic bombing. The participants shared the view that young people have important roles to play in the quest to create a world free of nuclear weapons. At a press conference held after the conference closed, Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui said that the gathering, held in Hiroshima for the first time in 19 years, sent out a strong message with its concrete and constructive proposals.

In the special session titled “International Student Meeting on Peace,” a total of eight youths, including high school students from Hiroshima, international students studying in Hiroshima, and university students from Nagasaki, exchanged views in front of the conference participants. Miku Tokuyama, 18, a third-year student at Hiroshima Jogakuin High School, described the efforts being made at her school, such as building a website to share the experiences of A-bomb survivors and pursuing a campaign to collect signatures in support of nuclear abolition. Among the eight students were four students from overseas, including Canada and Germany, now studying in Hiroshima. They stressed that tolerance toward different cultures is the key to peace.

In the closing ceremony, Hidehiko Yuzaki, the governor of Hiroshima Prefecture, referred to ideas that were the focus of the previous day’s discussion: establishing a working group to discuss legal provisions at the U.N. General Assembly and holding a nuclear disarmament summit in Hiroshima. He stated, “Lively and fruitful discussions have been held by front-line policymakers. Put the proposals made during the conference into action.” After the conference closed, Mr. Matsui expressed his hope that the political leaders of the world will visit Hiroshima so that awareness of the inhumanity of nuclear weapons can continue to grow.

The U.N. Conference on Disarmament Issues has been held in Japan since 1989, and this year marked the 25th meeting. Sponsored by the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific, this was the fourth such conference held in Hiroshima. About 80 diplomats and experts from 23 nations and five international organizations discussed tangible measures for nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation in light of the Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty held this past spring. The host city and date for the next meeting have not yet been determined.

(Originally published on August 29, 2015)

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