ICRC President Peter Maurer (Photo Thanks To the ICRC)
Geneva. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement praised Friday’s enactment of the very first international humanitarian law to include provisions to help address the disastrous humanitarian repercussions of using and evaluating nuclear weapons.
The Treaty on the Restriction of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) explicitly and unequivocally forbids the use, threat of use, development, production, screening and stockpiling of nuclear weapons, and it obliges all States Celebrations to not assist, motivate or induce anybody in any way to participate in any activity forbidden by the Treaty.
Calling the treaty as “a triumph for humankind” after more than 75 years of work, International Committee of the Red Cross President Peter Maurer said it sends out a clear signal that nuclear weapons are unacceptable from an ethical, humanitarian and now a legal viewpoint.
” It sets in movement even greater legal barriers and an even greater stigmatization of nuclear warheads than already exists. It allows us to imagine a world devoid of these inhumane weapons as an achievable objective,” he said in a declaration.
” The Treaty is a ground-breaking action to deal with the tradition of destruction caused by these weapons. The engaging proof of the suffering and destruction brought on by nuclear weapons, and the hazard their use might pose to mankind’s survival, makes efforts to justify their use or mere existence progressively indefensible. It is incredibly skeptical that these weapons might ever be utilized in line with global humanitarian law,” Maurer said.
He included that Red Cross and Red Crescent leaders commemorate the entry into force of the TPNW and salute all 51 states whose backing of the Treaty explains their rejection to accept nuclear weapons as an inevitable part of the worldwide security architecture.
He also invited other world leaders, including those of nuclear-armed states, to do the same and sign up with the path toward a world free of nuclear weapons, in line with long-standing international commitments, notably those under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
” The entry into force of this instrument of international humanitarian law comes as a welcome and effective tip that despite present global stress, we can conquer even our biggest and most entrenched difficulties, in the real spirit of multilateralism,” Francesco Rocca, President of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said.
” This capacity to successfully unite and collaborate our action needs to be called upon as we come to grips with other global, lethal difficulties.”
The Treaty obliges states to provide support, including medical care, rehab and mental assistance, to victims under their jurisdiction without discrimination, and guarantee their socio-economic addition. It also needs states to clear areas infected by nuclear usage or testing.
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