![Rebecca Johnson the British internationally-recognized expert on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, Co-Chair of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), has published an article on the IPS News Service titled ‘Changing the Game to Achieve Nuclear Disarmament’. Johnson states “Recent initiatives by the [ICAN], the Red Cross and a growing number of governments have begun to arouse global interest in the humanitarian effects of nuclear weapons. …Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide invited all United Nations governments to send senior officials and experts to participate in an international conference on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons on March 4-5, 2013, in Oslo. The aim of the conference is “to provide an arena for a fact-based discussion of the humanitarian and developmental consequences associated with a nuclear weapon detonation…” This conference aims to bring together not only scientists and doctors to talk about the immediate blast, flash-burns, fires and radiation that would incinerate and contaminate millions, but also agencies that deal with refugees, food insecurity and the medical needs of millions of homeless, starving people… The nuclear free countries have to stop behaving like passive supplicants, giving veto powers to their nuclear-armed neighbours. Unlike traditional arms control, humanitarian disarmament approaches recognise that everyone has the right and responsibility to take steps to prevent the use of nuclear weapons. The best way to do this is to ban and eliminate nuclear weapons. Once the nuclear-free countries acknowledge their own power and responsibility, they will find that a nuclear ban treaty can be far quicker and simpler to achieve than they thought. By changing the legal context, such a treaty would be a game changer, draining power and status from the nuclear-armed governments and hastening their understanding of their own security interests, increasing the imperative for concerted nuclear disarmament rather than perpetual proliferation.” Inspired by Rebecca Johnson, IPS News ow.ly/hhTX1 Image source nobelforpeace-summits ow.ly/hhTNo](http://www.ianbunn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/130210dcU60.jpg)
Changing game to achieve nuclear disarmament (February 10 2013)Rebecca Johnson the British internationally-recognized expert on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, Co-Chair of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), has published an article on the IPS News Service titled ‘Changing the Game to Achieve Nuclear Disarmament’. Johnson states “Recent initiatives by the [ICAN], the Red Cross and a growing number of governments have begun to arouse global interest in the humanitarian effects of nuclear weapons. …Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide invited all United Nations governments to send senior officials and experts to participate in an international conference on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons on March 4-5, 2013, in Oslo. The aim of the conference is “to provide an arena for a fact-based discussion of the humanitarian and developmental consequences associated with a nuclear weapon detonation…” This conference aims to bring together not only scientists and doctors to talk about the immediate blast, flash-burns, fires and radiation that would incinerate and contaminate millions, but also agencies that deal with refugees, food insecurity and the medical needs of millions of homeless, starving people… The nuclear free countries have to stop behaving like passive supplicants, giving veto powers to their nuclear-armed neighbours. Unlike traditional arms control, humanitarian disarmament approaches recognise that everyone has the right and responsibility to take steps to prevent the use of nuclear weapons. The best way to do this is to ban and eliminate nuclear weapons. Once the nuclear-free countries acknowledge their own power and responsibility, they will find that a nuclear ban treaty can be far quicker and simpler to achieve than they thought. By changing the legal context, such a treaty would be a game changer, draining power and status from the nuclear-armed governments and hastening their understanding of their own security interests, increasing the imperative for concerted nuclear disarmament rather than perpetual proliferation.”
Inspired by Rebecca Johnson, IPS News ow.ly/hhTX1 Image source nobelforpeace-summits ow.ly/hhTNo
