• Nuclear weapons violate International Law in many ways. They violate the United Nations Charter. The U.S. has been violating the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty. In 1996 the World Court ruled against nuclear weapons. In 2017 the United Nations passed a treaty prohibiting them, and 50 nations signed it promptly.
• The U.S. Constitution’s Article VI declares that “all treaties … shall be the supreme law of the land.” When the U.S. violates the United Nations Charter, various treaties and various aspects of international law, the U.S. is thereby violating the U.S. Constitution.
• After World War II, the U.S. led the efforts to prosecute Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg. The Nuremberg decision asserts that people must refuse to obey orders to commit “crimes against humanity.” Certainly a nuclear war is a crime against humanity. Therefore, both international law and, thereby, the U.S. Constitution require people to refuse to be complicit in nuclear weapons. The Nuremberg decision asserts that “I’m just following orders” is not a valid defense. Our nation and individuals must reckon with conscience.
• The U.S. has been violating the Non-Proliferation Treaty since 1970. The world’s nations passed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to stop the spread of nuclear weapons to additional nations. The non-nuclear nations agreed not to acquire nuclear weapons, and the nations that did have nuclear weapons agreed to start planning to get rid of theirs. However, the U.S. and other nuclear nations have continued keeping nuclear weapons in violation of the NPT. The rest of the world knows this.
• In 2010 Congress and Obama decided that the U.S. will replace ALL of our nuclear weapons and build new missiles, bombers, submarines, etc., and new types of warheads. This blatantly violates the NPT. Now the U.S. is provoking a new nuclear arms race that will provoke other nations to respond with their own.
• On July 8, 1996, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) unanimously agreed that any use or threat to use nuclear weapons would have to comply with those provisions of the UN Charter which prohibit the use of force except in cases of self-defense, and with the rules of international law applicable to armed conflict. Certainly the U.S. and other nuclear-armed nations have indeed been threatening to use nuclear weapons in violation of the UN Charter and the ICJ. See information at https://www.armscontrol.org/print/7556
• On July 7, 2017, the United Nations took strong action toward outlawing nuclear weapons. Of the UN’s 193 member states, 122 of them – almost two-thirds of the world’s nations – supported the “Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.” If enough nations sign on, the treaty will prohibit the possession, development, testing, use and threat of use of nuclear weapons. The 2017 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the organization that successfully organized this treaty, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). Democracy Now! reported on this great news. See this link: www.tinyurl.com/y79zxo49
Connect with the Olympia Coalition to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
We meet monthly to organize a good variety of strategically smart, useful activities.
We reach out to educate and mobilize the public, and we urge the government to abolish nuclear weapons.
Contact us at nuclearweapons@olympiafor.org (360) 705-2407 or (360) 491-9093.
See http://parallaxperspectives.org/category/nuclear-weapons
Our statewide coalition is Washington Against Nuclear Weapons, www.WANWcoalition.org (206) 547-2630.
