The World Health Organisation has concluded that nuclear weapons pose the greatest immediate threat to human health and welfare. The planetary health imperative to prohibit and eradicate the only weapons posing an existential threat is urgent. The danger of nuclear war is growing. The hard-won agreements that have constrained nuclear proliferation since the Cold War are being progressively dismantled, and a new arms race between NATO/US and Russia is escalating. Rather than disarming, all 9 nuclear-armed states are massively investing in retaining and modernising their arsenals with new capacities and lowering the threshold for their use.
Successful approaches to the control of other indiscriminate and inhumane weapons have stigmatised, prohibited and are advancing the progressive elimination of biological and chemical weapons, landmines and cluster munitions. Evidence-based advocacy by scientists and health professionals on the catastrophic consequences of any use of nuclear weapons, together with compelling testimony of survivors of nuclear weapons use and testing, have underpinned a Humanitarian Initiative.
On 7 July 2017, the historic United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was adopted. The Treaty is a planetary health good of the highest order. Expected to enter into force during 2020, it provides the first comprehensive and categorical prohibition of nuclear weapons, and is the only currently defined path for all states to achieve the eradication of nuclear weapons, the stated aspiration and legal obligation of all governments. Regrettably, the Australian government provides assistance for possible use of US nuclear weapons and opposes the Treaty.
The 2017 Nobel Peace Prize, the first to an Australian-born entity, was awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) “for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons”.
The Treaty and health evidence-based advocacy are key to ensuring nuclear weapons are ended before they end us.