Sculpture "Good conquers evil", work of the Georgian sculptor Zurab Tsereteli that represents Saint George killing the dragon. The dragon was created from fragments of Soviet SS-20 and United States Pershing missiles. The sculpture is located at the United Nations headquarters in New York. United Nations photo/Milton Grant.
On the occasion of International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons (September 26), the 33 member states of the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (OPANAL), issue a declaration in which they point out, among other points:
They demand that nuclear weapons are not used again under any circumstances by any actor, which can only be ensured through the prohibition and subsequent transparent, verifiable and irreversible elimination of all nuclear weapons.
They reiterate the call to all States, particularly nuclear weapon States, to eliminate the role of nuclear weapons in their security and defense doctrines and policies and to fully comply with their legal obligations and unequivocal commitments to achieve the total elimination of nuclear weapons nuclear weapons without further delay.
Read the text of the Declaration of the OPANAL Member States on the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons: Spanish/ English/ Portuguese
Background
On September 26, 1983, Stanislav Petrov, then Lieutenant Colonel of the Soviet Air Force, made a decision that averted a possible nuclear war between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the United States.
The USSR missile detection satellite system issued the alarm indicating that the United States had launched five nuclear missiles into USSR territory. The alert required an immediate response. The USSR had just minutes to decide whether to launch nuclear missiles at the United States in retaliation or wait and risk devastating damage. This decision was left in the hands of Petrov, who, upon noticing that the conventional radar system did not detect any nuclear missile, chose to break military protocol and, despite the opposition of his command team, did not heed the alert of the new system. missile detection satellite of the USSR. Petrov disobeyed the chain of command and preferred not to respond to the alleged attack.
The launch of the North American missiles turned out to be a false alarm, it was an error by the USSR missile detection satellite system. Had the USSR responded to the alleged attack, the United States, in turn, might have launched a nuclear attack in retaliation, causing an incalculable number of deaths and major disasters. Petrov's decision not to launch a retaliatory nuclear strike saved hundreds of millions of lives around the world.
The International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons (September 26)
Following the High-Level Meeting on Nuclear Disarmament held at the United Nations on September 26, 2013, the General Assembly adopted the resolution A / RES / 68/32 which calls for "urgent initiation of negotiations within the framework of the Conference on Disarmament for the early conclusion of a general convention on nuclear weapons prohibiting the possession, development, production , the acquisition, testing, storage, transfer, use or threat of use of nuclear weapons and providing for their destruction.
Resolution 68/32 also "declares 26 September as the International Day for Total Elimination dedicated to the promotion of this goal, including through increasing public awareness and knowledge of the threat posed to humanity nuclear weapons and the need for their total elimination", and furthermore, "decides to convene, no later than 2018, a high-level international conference of the United Nations on nuclear disarmament in order to review the progress made towards this regard".
On December 5, 2014, this resolution was adopted within the United Nations General Assembly in a vote in which 137 votes were recorded in favor, 28 against and 20 abstentions.
The commemoration at the United Nations of the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons – 2018
This September 26, 2018, the United Nations General Assembly will hold a high-level meeting to commemorate and promote the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.