Around the world a tiny handful of governments are risking everything we hold dear. It’s only nine countries, nine countries that would rather put the fate of humanity at risk than support their own populations. Nine countries, supported by another couple dozen, that think nuclear weapons are somehow a solution, somehow an answer to global problems. Only nine countries. And these nine countries are all right now modernizing their nuclear arsenals. They are developing new types of nuclear weapons, for new types of missions, making the use of nuclear weapons more likely. They are spending countless billions to make it easier to use nuclear weapons to wipe out entire cities. The governments of China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States are committing tremendous resources to maintain objects designed to commit mass murder.
Nuclear weapons are weapons created to cause catastrophic suffering. UN agencies, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent movements, and first responders the world over know that should nuclear weapons be used again, no help is coming. No relief for the burns, the blast, the fire.
But there is hope.
A majority of the world’s countries decided to reject nuclear weapons when they adopted the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear weapons in July 2017. Governments are now signing and ratifying the treaty and making the only rational choice in the face of increasing nuclear dangers.
Even in countries that are have not yet joined the treaty, academia, parliaments, civil society and industry are taking note. Nuclear weapons, like other weapons of mass destruction, are now forbidden by international treaty.
This report brings attention to how you can use this treaty to influence a powerful actor in the fight against nuclear weapons – the financial institutions. By divesting from nuclear weapon producers, we can make it harder for those that profit from weapons of mass destruction and encourage them to cut the production of nuclear weapons from their business strategies. Producing, possessing and modernising nuclear weapons is not something to be proud of and Don’t Bank on the Bomb names those that are still okay with trying to make a profit from producing nuclear weapons, our job is to shame them.
When the world is closer to nuclear war than ever, we need to make sure that no one should profit from this terror.
Beatrice Fihn
Executive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, ICAN, winner of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize.