The Candidate Pledge For a Nuclear Weapon Free Future seeks to build support for the Nuclear Ban Treaty at all levels of US governance by getting our elected officials to pledge support for the Treaty and use their governing power to work towards Treaty Alignment.

Nuclear weapons are the most destructive, inhumane and indiscriminate weapons ever invented. A single detonation – on purpose or by accident – would be a humanitarian catastrophe of unparalleled proportions. A “limited” exchange of nuclear weapons, for instance between India and Pakistan or between the US and North Korea, could put enough soot into the atmosphere to cause climate disruption and global famine. A full-scale nuclear war between the US and Russia would be the end of human civilization as we know it, if not the end of all life on earth.[1]

 

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was adopted by 122 nations at the UN on 7/7/17. The Treaty comprehensively bans the development, production, possession, deployment, threat and use of nuclear weapons under international law. As with the Paris Climate Accords, the US is clearly out of step with the rest of the world on an issue of global significance.

 

As with the Paris Climate Accords, we the people of the US do not need to wait for our President to do the right thing. Individuals, faith communities, schools, businesses and organizations across the country are taking steps themselvesto be in compliance with this new Treaty – by divesting from and boycotting the companies involved in the nuclear weapons industry and by refusing to work for or supply to  these companies.

 

Elected officials at all levels of government can make a hugely important contribution to this movement, by supporting efforts at the municipal, state and federal levels to prohibit research and construction of nuclear weapons, divest from and boycott the companies concerned, and otherwise push for the US to sign, ratify and implement the Treaty.

 

“As a candidate for public office, I consider the abolition of nuclear weapons to be an essential step towards a more peaceful, prosperous, fair and just society. I therefore call on the US to sign, ratify and implement the 2017 International Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Until that happens, I will support legislation that would bring local and state governments into Alignment with the Treaty, as far as it is legally and practically possible to do so.”

 

To sign this Pledge, send an email to [email protected].

Pledged candidates running for public office in 2021 and 2022 will be listed here:

NuclearBan.US, a partner of ICAN
59 Gleason Road, Northampton, MA 01060
(413) 727-3704 | [email protected]

[1]http://www.icanw.org/the-facts/catastrophic-harm/