The head of the World Council of Churches has called upon the World Economic Forum to say “no” to nuclear weapons and put pressure on nations to disarm as the annual gathering kicks off in Davos, Switzerland.
In a statement issued on Monday, Rev Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the WCC, said there is “absolutely no moral justification whatsoever for using them”.
“The time has come to say together that for the sake of the one humanity there is no moral ground on which we can keep them and threaten one another with them,” he said. “The risk they are used by a mistake or by irresponsible people is indeed also a very real one. Still, this most destructive and indiscriminate type of weapon of mass destruction ever devised by men (and I use the gender-specific term deliberately) continues to be the keystone of our global ‘security’ regime.”
Rev Dr Tveit said it was time to “say together” that nuclear weapons were “wrong”.
“It is time to call it a sin, both using and having nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons are designed to destroy entire cities, with every man, woman, child and every living creature in them. Moreover, they destroy the natural environment itself, their deadly radioactive legacy lingering and poisoning the very earth for millennia. They are the ‘dumbest’, most evil weapons. They destroy what is built up for the common good through politics, through the economy, through civil society. Everything.”
Rev Dr Tveit said it was a “sign of hope” that the WEC included the issue of disarmament on its agenda.
“The nuclear-armed minority are unable to free themselves from their thraldom to nuclear weapons. It has and will require the example and leadership of the non-nuclear majority to set a new course away from the precipice.”
The 48th World Economic Forum will be held in Davos from 23rd to 26th January under the theme of ‘Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World’. Rev Dr Tveit will be at the gathering from 24th to 26th.
