日本被団協

About Hidankyo

Hibakusha appealed at the Millennium Forum

1,400 representatives of over 1000 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from 145 countries gathered at the NGO Millennium Forum from May 22 to 26 at the United Nations Headquarters, New York. 14 Hibakusha participated the Forum as members of a joint delegation of "Message of Hiroshima and Nagasaki" Network. At the workshops or meetings, Hibakusha called for elimination of nuclear weapons.
After the Forum was over, the delegation visited Washington D.C. and Boston in order to tell the truth of the atomic bombings, response to requests from peace groups.
At the workshops

　　At the workshops

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February 2, 2000

Japan Confederation of A-and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidakyo) cordially requests that the following 3 proposals be discussed at the NGO Millennium Forum and be reflected in the final report from the Forum to the Millennium Assembly of the United Nations.

1. The continuing existence of nuclear weapons, the menace caused by them, and accidental, miscalculated or intentional use of those weapons pose serious threat to the survival of the entire humanity and all lives on earth. The abolition of nuclear weapons is the most urgent task for securing a peaceful 21st century. We request that this task will form the keynote of the whole of the Forum and be discussed as the task of highest priority.

2. The use of nuclear weapons against Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 claimed the lives of more than 200,000 people, and has left the survivors with aftereffects from radiation and fear for their possible outbreak. Moreover, in the process of production and testing, nuclear weapons have produced many radiation victims in different parts of the world, who are compelled to face nuclear terror in their living even today.
We call on the NGOs to urge the United Nations to conduct investigation into actual conditions of all nuclear victims and make public its result. We also call on the U.N. and NGOs to bring the case of nuclear victims to the U.N. Human Rights Commission as the violation of human rights of the victims, and urge the states concerned to take relief measures for them.

3. We highly value the 1996 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice that stated, "the threat or use of nuclear weapons would generally be contrary to the rules of international law". However, it is nothing but the “use of nuclear weapons in an extreme circumstance … in which the very survival of a state would be at stake”, on which the ICJ could not make definitive conclusion on its illegality, that will inevitably lead to devastating nuclear exchange. We request that the NGO Millennium Forum take a position that will regard unconditionally the threat or use of nuclear weapons as violation of international law.

On behalf of Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations

Nori Tohei
Secretary General

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