Press Release by ACDN

Vienna, on 7.12.2014

France will not take part or attend as an observer at the 3rd Conference of the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons, in Vienna on December 8-9. Over 150 nations accepted the invitation of the Austrian Government.

From among the nuclear-armed states, two permanent members of the UN Security Council, also founding members of the Non Proliferation Treaty, will be present – the USA and the UK. Russia, with the same status, will be absent. The holder of another permanent seat, China, and also a signatory of the NPT, will not attend officially but, the chinese government, has announced that a former diplomat will attend as an observer.

Two nuclear-armed states not in the NPT will be officially represented – India and Pakistan. But Israel and North Korea will stay away.

So France has adopted an « empty chair » policy, along with Russia, Israel and North Korea. France’s leaders apparently prefer (like Russia, Israal and North Korea) to maintain ignorance about the full horror that nuclear war would mean for millions of human beings, despite the fact that France has a finger on the button.

As a curtain-raiser to the intergovernmental conference, a Civil Society Forum was organised by ICAN (International Campaign Against Nuclear Weapons), 6-7 December. It brought together over 600 people from all round the world, delegates who expressed their strong determination to demand and finally obtain the elimination of nuclear weapons, which permanently threaten to annihilate humankind. It is high time to get rid of them by means of a total ban, as has been done with chemical and biological weapons. Will France, the « homeland of human rights » finally admit this?

Action des Citoyens pour le Désarmement Nucléaire
Action of Citizens for Nuclear Disarmament
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