Give Peace a Chance! United towards Peace, Ecology and Climate — Abolish Nuclear Weapons!

In this accompanying peace event to the 1st UN Conference of the Partner States of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, all the aspects listed here will be examined in more details and ways to a peaceful sustainable development are identified.

Give Peace a Chance! sang John Lennon and Yoko Ono more than 50 years ago. Today this call for peace is more urgent than ever. The climate and environmental crisis, increasing inequality, the intensified global military and armed drone operations, the militarization of the EU, and the multiple regional wars require one joint effort of peace, environmental, and climate movements for peace and the renunciation of violence and to save our planet. The entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in January 2021 is a beacon of hope for all people in actual conflicts and crises.

Disarmament and arms conversion are essential elements of the necessary transformation into one eco-social, fit for the future development of society. Only if we succeed in transferring the massive funds for the military and armaments – $5 billion are wasted on this worldwide every day – to education, health, technological transformation, and social balance is a future worth living for humans and nature possible. Most important is the definitive ban on nuclear weapons.

Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW)
The UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons heralded a paradigm shift in thinking about security. The TPNW came into force on January 22, 2021 and prohibits the development, testing,  production, owning, and deployment of nuclear weapons and the threat of these. In contrast to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), where the participating “nuclear powers“ have blocked each other for more than a decade with nothing happening towards the disarmament and destruction of the 13,400 nuclear warheads worldwide, the TPNW is based on a democratic development process. It thus opens a door to a possible nuclear weapons-free future. UN Secretary-General António Guterres welcomed the entry into force of the agreement. The first multilateral nuclear disarmament treaty in more than two decades is “an important step towards a world without nuclear weapons and a strong demonstration of support for a multilateral approach to nuclear disarmament”.

Sunday, 19 June
5 to 10pm
Wilhelmine Moik Halle, ÖGB Catamaran
Johann-Böhm-Platz 1, 1020 Vienna
and online
via Zoom and livestream

Languages: English, German
Two professional translators from WILPF (Women‘s International League for Peace and Freedom) will provide simultaneous translation: Helena Nyberg, WILPF Switzerland, and Michaela Leithner, WILPF Austria

Organisation & sponsoring: International Peace Bureau (IPB), Aktionsbündnis für Frieden, aktive Neutralität und Gewaltfreiheit (AbFaNG), Women’s International League for Peace & Freedem Austria (WILPF)

supported by International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) Austria, ITUC CSI IGB, Attac, transform! europe, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) Austria, Forum Wissenschaft und Umwelt (fwu), Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB), Union of International Associations (UIA)