Breakthrough on anti-nuclear ban
Quakers across the UK are stepping up their campaign to put pressure on the government to sign the Treaty.
There were reasons to celebrate, however, as news broke in October that the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) had been ratified by the fiftieth state. With Honduras signing, the treaty will enter into international legal force on 22 January. The Northern Friends Peace Board called the news a ‘breakthrough’ and said: ‘We will need to maintain pressure on nuclear weapons states to act responsibly and make nuclear disarmament a political reality.’ Britain Yearly Meeting urged the government not to boycott the Treaty, with recording clerk Paul Parker saying: ‘Love for our neighbour is the very heart of the Christian way of life. How can we love someone, and yet have a nuclear weapon, a horrific instrument of death, primed and ready for launch, pointed towards them at the same time?’ As 22 January approaches, Quakers across the UK are stepping up their campaign to put pressure on the government to sign the Treaty.
