The information by Dr. Marcel Junod, a Swiss doctor who was the first foreigner to visit Hiroshima in September 1945 gives us a glimpse of the destruction. It has been estimated that these bombs killed a total of 213,000 people immediately. The radiation effects have continued till date on the generations that have grown since. The deadly bombs destroyed 42 of 45 hospitals, killed 272 of 300 doctors and 1684 nurses out of 1780 perished. People were burnt to death, buildings collapsed like cards and there were radiations all around.

The memories of the bad events of past are a rejoinder to never let such mistakes be repeated. Therefore some days have been marked to warn and remind the people from time to time. The 26th September, declared by the UN as the International Day for Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons is not only to remind us of the worst ever destruction in human history, but also to pledge to avert any such happening in future.

The United Nations was founded On 24th October in 1945 after the Second World War by 51 countries committed to maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations and promoting social progress, better living standards and human rights. Global nuclear disarmament is one of its major goals. The UN General Assembly (UNGA) established the Atomic Energy Commission to make specific proposals for the control of nuclear energy and the elimination of atomic weapons and all other major weapons adaptable to mass destruction. It continued several diplomatic efforts in that direction. This also strengthened peace movement globally.

As a result of peace movement there have been treaties in the effort for reduction of nuclear weapons. The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START -1) is one such very important treaty between George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev. The treaty was signed on 31 July 1991 and entered into force on 5 December 1994. The treaty barred its signatories from deploying more than 6,000 nuclear warheads atop a total of 1,600 inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and bombers. START negotiated the largest and most complex arms control treaty in history, and its final implementation in late 2001 resulted in the removal of about 80 percent of all strategic nuclear weapons then in existence.

New START treaty was signed in Prague by United States President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Following ratification by the U.S. Senate and the Federal Assembly of Russia, it went into force on 26 January 2011. But there have been difficulties in it. As a statement of Deputy Foreign Minister Russia Sergei Ryabkov published in the media on 22nd September ‘that the conditions setup the US administration are impediment in extending the New START Treaty’. It is an unfortunate development.

As per the information from different sources there are somewhere between 14000 to 17000 nuclear weapons on earth. All the nuclear weapons possessing countries have separate budget allocations to upgrade their nuclear stockpiles. Presently nine countries USA, Russia, UK, France, China, Pakistan, India, Israel and North Korea possess nuclear weapons. There are many others who have potential to develop their nuclear arsenal. Nearly half of the world’s population lives in counties which either have such weapons or are members of nuclear alliances.

The nuclear weapons possessing countries take the alibi of nuclear weapons as the weapons of deterrence. But they forget that the very presence of these weapons poses a potential threat of their being used at any time. Moreover the expenditure on their upkeep is at the cost of the public health needs globally. Despite that both India and Pakistan posses nuclear weapons, the two countries went to war at Kargil in 1999.

There have been several achievements to the credit of the global peace movement. There are five Nuclear Weapons Free Zones in the world. The Latin America negotiated the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America In 1967 known as the Treaty of Tlatelolco, and established the first nuclear weapons-free zone.

The South Pacific became the second nuclear-weapon-free zone, the Treaty of Rarotonga in 1985. South Africa voluntarily renounced its nuclear weapons programme in 1991. Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine voluntarily renounced nuclear weapons in their possession following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. In 1995 Southeast Asia became the third nuclear-weapon-free zone, the Bangkok Treaty. In 1996 Africa became the fourth nuclear-weapon-free zone the Pelindaba Treaty. Central Asia became the fifth nuclear-weapon-free zone - Treaty on a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Central Asia.

The efforts of International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), a brain child of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) bore fruits after long and hard campaign. On 7 July 2017, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) was adopted. It is the first multilateral legally binding instrument for nuclear disarmament to have been negotiated in 20 years. The treaty has already been signed by 85 countries and ratified by 46 countries; only four short of its entry into force.

True that all global effort is now directed towards tackling COVID. We will succeed in that soon. But Nuclear weapons are our own creation. Barring the Military Industrial Complex, they serve no one’s interest! Time is now to dismantle these weapons. A study by the IPPNW that even a limited nuclear exchange between Pakistan and India would put over two billion people at risk is a warning. The only true guarantee against the use of nuclear weapons is their total elimination. The Treaty Prohibiting Nuclear Weapons is an opportunity. (IPA Service)