ICAN launched the Cities Appeal, a commitment by cities and towns to show support for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and call on their governments to join. Major cities such as Baltimore, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Sydney and Toronto have already committed themselves to the Appeal which states:
Our city/town is deeply concerned about the grave threat that nuclear weapons pose to communities throughout the world. We firmly believe that our residents have the right to live in a world free from this Threat. Any use of nuclear weapons, whether deliberate or accidental, would have catastrophic, far-reaching and long-lasting consequences for people and the environment. Therefore, we warmly welcome the adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons by the United Nations in 2017, and we call on our national government to join it.
Why cities?
Nuclear weapons pose a particular threat to cities, which are in many cases the primary targets for an attack. Nuclear weapons are designed to inflict comprehensive damage upon their targets. It is the very nature of the nuclear threat to a rival country’s most important places that underpins the theory and practice of nuclear deterrence, which is promoted as a legitimate defense strategy by all nine nuclear-armed states, and the several dozen more that endorse the use of nuclear weapons. These governments are putting their citizens’ lives at risk by subscribing to this strategy, which has been undermined time and again by near misses and miscalculations which very nearly unleashed nuclear war. Local governments bear a special responsibility for the safety of their residents. It is therefore incumbent upon cities to speak out against nuclear weapons.
Divestment for cities
In addition to calling on their national government to join the TPNW, cities can have a very real and concrete impact by divesting their local funds from the nuclear weapons industry. By divesting for example their local pension fund from the companies involved in the production and modernisation of nuclear weapons, cities can send a clear signal they do not want to be complicit in this industry.
For more information on how to do this, see our new City Guide for Divestment here.