PRE-DEGREE/CERTIFICATE REGISTRATION/SCHOOL FEES
Peace Campaigner Advocates Stiffer Measures Against Nuclear Proliferation
- Details
- Published: 14 June 2017
As the debate on the development and deployment of nuclear weapons continue to occupy global attention, an international peace advocate and educator, Alyn Ware, has continued to draw more attention to the negative consequences of nuclear proliferation, how it affects the future of the world, and the threat it posed to global peace and security.
Ware spoke at the 2017 Rightlivelihood Lecture held at the main auditorium of the Centre for Conflict and Gender Studies (CCGS) on Thursday, May 25, 2007. He also advocated a global network to address the issue of proliferation of nuclear weapons, which he said threatened life on planet earth.
The Guest Speaker, whose lecture was entitled: Peace, Nuclear Power and Times of Conflict, enumerated a number of incidents of nuclear disasters and near misses, ranging from the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, which lasted for 13 days to the 2007 United States Nuclear weapons loss for 36 hours, including the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the defunct Soviet Union.
Ware described damages resulting from nuclear explosions, such as the ones unleashed by the United States on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as colossal worth preventing in modern times. He also said that the possibility of terrorist groups gaining access to nuclear materials placed the world at very grave risk. The Guest Speaker added that it could take as many as 25,000 years for the effects of nuclear weapon to be neutralised, once it was unleashed deliberately or accidentally.
Ware, who had served as Global Coordinator for Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament, advocated the need to negotiate effective treaties aimed at banning nuclear weapons. “It is counterproductive to use force to resolve the problem of nuclear proliferation. All hands should be on deck to ensure that the problem of nuclear proliferation is brought under control. A lot of teaching and enlightenment would have to be done. We have to use media, discussions, citizen participation and persuade decision makers on the necessity to address this problem,” he advocated.
Recalling efforts made so far on nuclear disarmament, the 2009 Alternate Laureate recipient of the Rightlivelihood College, stated that “the United Nations Security Council under the President of Costa Rica held a historic open debate on the implementation of UN Charter Article 26, which calls for the regulation of armaments to ensure the least diversion of human and economic resources from global needs.” He, however, regretted that governments continue to devote a large chunk of their annual budgets to the military and development of weapons of mass destruction, while millions of their own people starve to death.
Reviewing the Lecture, Dean of the Faculty of Law, Professor Ibibia Worika, said that the issues raised by Mr. Ware were urgent and pertinent to foster global peace, security, harmony and development. He advocated the strengthening of legal frameworks to tackle issues pertaining to nuclear proliferation and minimising the possibility of an accidental discharge that was capable of destroying the world as we knew it today.
The event which included a lively interactive session was organised by CCGS in collaboration with Mr. Nnimmo Bassey's Home for Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF).
