A Nuclear Abolition Day Appeal calls on governments to end the nuclear arms race and redirect the $100 billion budget to instead fund peace, climate protection and sustainable development.
More than 2000 diverse organizations and eminent individuals from 105 countries have endorsed the Nuclear Abolition Day Appeal, a powerful plea to end the nuclear arms race, that will be presented to the UN General Assembly in conjunction with the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons (Nuclear Abolition Day), September 26.
The Appeal calls on governments to affirm that the threat or use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible, commit to achieving the global elimination of nuclear weapons no later than 2045, and redirect the $100 billion USD spent annually on nuclear weapons to instead support peacemaking, environmental protection, and other urgent needs of humanity and the planet, as expressed through the Sustainable Development Goals.
The Appeal will be discussed on September 26 at a global, civil-society webinar Towards a Nuclear Weapons-Free World, commemorating Nuclear Abolition Day. The event will be opened by a message from H.E. Izumi Nakamitsu, UN Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, and will include Nobel Laureates, current and former high-level political officials, parliamentarians, local body representatives; academics and educators; scientists; medical professionals; leaders from faith-based, business, and youth communities; artists; and other concerned individuals and organizations.
As Ela Gandhi, Co-President of Religions for Peace, granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi, and one of the event speakers, notes: “Nuclear weapons are a hazard for all of humanity and therefore should be dismantled and abolished altogether from the face of our Earth, our planet, our home.”
“The risk of nuclear war, whether triggered by deliberate aggressive first use, or – probably more likely – through accident, system error, cyber sabotage, or human error or idiocy, is as great or greater now than it has been since the height of the Cold War,” says Hon Gareth Evans, former Foreign Minister of Australia, Convenor of Asia Pacific Leadership Network on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, and a speaker at the September 26 event.
The appeal will then be circulated to all governments in preparation for the High-Level Meeting on the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons which the President of the UN General Assembly will host on September 29.
“The nuclear weapons states plan trillions in spending on modernizing nuclear arsenals with AI and other risk inducing technologies,” says Appeal endorser Scott Yundt, Executive Director, Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment. “The world must come together to stop this madness, redirect those dollars and prevent nuclear war.”
“Nuclear weapons violate the right to life and dignity guaranteed by Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and threaten every community, especially women and children,” says Appeal endorser Sangeeta Desarda, President of the Arihant Foundation. “From India I endorse this Joint Appeal: call for the implementation of UN Charter Article 26 (on redirecting military expenses to instead support human and economic need), end the nuclear arms race, and invest instead in climate justice and a secure future for all.”
The September 26 event program will also premiere the global screenings of the new Oscar-nominated short film, An Ordinary Insanity, featuring renowned whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, followed by discussion with the film director and producer. Before he released the top-secret Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam War, Ellsberg was a nuclear war planner with access to classified information on US nuclear strategy. Filmed a year before his death in 2023, this film provides a powerful wakeup call from Ellsberg: “I’ve long said that to my last breath I will be doing what I can to postpone and avert the risk of nuclear war.”
September 26th is also the anniversary of an infamous incident when a nuclear war was nearly initiated by misinformation. On this date in 1983, a nuclear weapons early warning facility in Russia detected an apparent incoming ballistic missile attack from the USA (later confirmed as a false alarm). Colonel Stanislav Petrov, Duty Officer at the facility, broke protocol by not affirming to senior command that the early warning satellites were detecting incoming nuclear missiles, thus preventing a possible ‘launch-on-warning, retaliatory nuclear strike’ from Russia, which would have triggered nuclear war.
Colonel Stanislav Petrov’s brush with the apocalypse isn’t the only such incident in which courageous (and sometimes career-ending) commonsense decisions have been made by military personnel under extraordinary stress – some known, some unknowable. The future of civilization cannot rest in our reliance on brave individuals being in the right place at the right time. States must move to sanity for our safety.
The Appeal promotes common security and international law to address the existential threats from both nuclear weapons and climate change. “It is in response to the continued prevalence of human-generated threats to humanity, from nuclear weapons to the climate emergency, that the law acts as a shield to protect all of humanity, including present and future generations,” says Theresa Amor-Juergenssen, World’s Youth for Climate Justice. “On these fronts, the law is clear: as a species we must pool our efforts, setting aside transitory interests, to stop humanity’s hubris and prevent intergenerational threats from destroying all life on Earth.”
“We need to elevate diplomacy, cooperative leadership, common security and the rule of law in order to prevent nuclear war, resolve international conflicts peacefully, protect the climate for current and future generations and set in motion concrete processes to achieve the peace and security of a nuclear-weapon-free world,” urges Bill Kidd, Co-President of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament and an event speaker.
Appeal supporter Michael Douglas, Academy Award-winning actor and UN Ambassador for Peace sums up our duty: “We must all do our part to ensure that – by accident, design or madness – these weapons are never used. This time of turbulence compels a clear message to stop threatening all of our lives and our children’s future. Nuclear disarmament now.”
Please join on September 26 for the event and an opportunity for existential course correction.
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Organized by NuclearAbolitonDay.org, a global civil society coalition established in consultation with the UN Office of Disarmament Affairs in 2025 to build cooperation and impact for the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.