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Nuclear abolition conference opens in Hiroshima with appeal for nuclear weapons convention

by Junji Akechi, Staff Writer

On August 2, the World Conferences against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs, organized by the Japan Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs (Gensuikyo) and its affiliated organizations, opened with an international meeting at a hotel in Minami Ward, Hiroshima. The three-day conference, which runs until August 4, has brought together 92 people from governments and peace organizations in 28 nations and regions to discuss such issues as the inhumane nature of nuclear weapons and an early start to negotiations for a nuclear weapons convention, then draft a declaration.

At the opening general assembly, Kunikazu Noguchi, representing the conference’s executive committee, addressed the participants, saying, “I hope this conference will be a venue for upending the theory of nuclear deterrence and articulating concrete measures for pursuing a total ban on nuclear arms and their abolition.”

Sergio Duarte, the former United Nations High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, then spoke. Mr. Duarte expressed concern over current conditions, including the fact that five nuclear weapon states have rebuffed the meetings of the working group on nuclear disarmament taking place at the United Nations, and countries like the A-bombed nation of Japan are not actively supporting the early realization of a nuclear weapons convention. The world is at a crossroads, he said, and assertions that nuclear arms are needed for national security must be countered.

After the general assembly, seven people spoke at a session that included global nuclear sufferers and their supporters. Koo Jung Sung, the vice president of the South Korean Atomic Bomb Sufferers Association, said that A-bomb survivors who returned to the Korean Peninsula after the end of World War II have endured lives of hardship, including the aftereffects of the atomic bombing, without official assessments of their situation. A worker who was involved in efforts to address the troubled conditions after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant also made a report.

The Japan Congress Against A- and H-Bombs (Gensuikin) and its affiliated organizations will hold their Hiroshima meeting of the World Conferences in Naka Ward and other locations between August 4 and 6.

(Originally published on August 3, 2016)

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