Should all Nuclear Weapons be put Under Control of the UN?
Should all nuclear weapons be put under the control of the UN?
Background:
The Nuclear Age began, when the first bomb was tested on a quiet stretch of desert in Alamogordo, New Mexico on July 16, 1945.
There are currently around 36,000 nuclear weapons in the world's arsenals, primarily in the five Nuclear Weapon States - USA, UK, Russia, France and China.
These states possess what is estimated to be 2,667 times the firepower experienced in the entire six years of World War II.
At the height of the Cold War there were around 65,000 nuclear weapons.
In September 1996, the United Nations completed negotiations on a treaty banning all nuclear testing.
Under international law, it is illegal to threaten to use or use nuclear weapons.
The US and Russia still keep some 4,500 nuclear weapons on hair-trigger alert ready to be fired on a few moments notice.
The World Court ruled that any use of nuclear weapons, like other weapons, must not indiscriminately kill civilians and must not cause unnecessary suffering. No use of nuclear weapons could meet this criteria. Therefore, the threat or use of nuclear weapons is illegal under international law.
The Conference on Disarmament (CD) is the world's sole multilateral disarmament treaty negotiating body. While the CD is independent of the United Nations, its secretary is appointed by the UN Secretary-General; it is required to consider recommendations from the General Assembly; and it submits reports at least annually to the UN General Assembly in Geneva. Most items on the CD agenda are discussed in ad hoc committees, held in private. The whole conference must agree by consensus to the mandate given to ad hoc committees.
On August 6, 1945, Hiroshima became death. Three days later, on August 9, 1945, Nagasaki became death.
By 1950 those two bombs and the radiation from them had claimed 350,000 lives.
Nuclear arms control treaties have been placed by the un on both qualitative and quantitative limits on nuclear weapons.
Some Say:
The sheer folly of trying to defend a nation by destroying all life on the planet must be apparent to anyone capable of rational thought. - Queen Noor of Jordan
"The United Nations must assume world leadership to end once and for all the threat of nuclear war. It is our moral responsibility." - Harisson Ford
"We the Peoples of the United Nations are determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war" - UN Secretarty General...