Palau urged member nations of the United Nations still testing and using nuclear weapons to eliminate them because its horrific consequences to humanity.
President Tommy Remengesau Jr. made the call at the High Level Plenary meeting to commemorate and promote the International Day for Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons on September as one of the sideline events of 73rd Session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) at the UN headquarters in New York.
“The use of nuclear weapons is morally never justified, and no State should seek to find legal justification. Nuclear weapons indiscriminately kill and the suffering continues long after their detonation. The threat to humanity must be brought to an end by demanding all nuclear states to eliminate their nuclear stockpiles,” Remengesau noted.
The president especially reminded nuclear-weapons capable states that Pacific island nations experienced the horrors of nuclear weapons.
In the 1950s Pacific islands were used for the development and testing of nuclear weapons.
“The testing of nuclear weapons has been a scourge in the Pacific. Large numbers of people have been displaced, sickness is endemic in some communities, and the promised remediation of the lingering after effects has been inadequate and incomplete,” Remengesau said in his speech.
But still, he said the testing and use of nuclear weapons continues with several States still maintaining a testing vast arsenals and pursue new weapons.
“It would be in the interest of humanity that member states take unilateral steps to reduce their nuclear stockpiles and ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT),’ he added.
“Amid the growing concern of nuclear weapons being used by terrorists, it is the high time that we take the next obvious step towards total elimination of the nuclear weapons,” Remengesau urged the leaders.
He said in commemoration of the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons non-nuclear states must unite press the nuclear states to “end this terror.”
The use of nuclear weapons is morally never justified, and no State should seek to find legal justification. Nuclear weapons indiscriminately kill and the suffering continues long after their detonation. The threat to humanity must be brought to an end by demanding all nuclear states to eliminate their nuclear stockpiles.
Palau made history by becoming the first island- nation to ratify the prohibition of Nuclear Weapons after it deposited its instrument of ratification of the treaty with the United Nations on May 3 this year
Palau was one of the first countries to sign the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons last year.
The signing occurred September 20th during the 72nd Session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York City. (Bernadette H. Carreon)