29th October, 2015
The World Council of Churches has welcomed a South African Government plan to propose a resolution on the “ethical imperatives for a nuclear weapons-free world” at the UN General Assembly in New York.
WCC General Secretary Olav Fykse Tveit said the resolution was "in harmony with long-standing calls from the World Council of Churches and other world religious bodies to eliminate nuclear weapons". He said there was an "urgent need for creating strong support to translate its ethical imperatives into concrete and conclusive action".
The proposed resolution would declare nuclear weapons to be “inherently immoral" and says all states have an "ethical responsibility" to act to eliminate and prohibit all nuclear weapons.
Speaking at the UN in late September, South African President Jacob Zuma said there can be "no safe hands" for nuclear weapons and that the humanitarian consequences of the detonation of a nuclear weapon, whether intentionally or accidentally, would be "catastrophic" for humanity.
It comes in the wake of the introduction of a "humanitarian pledge" to prohibit nuclear weapons which was initially proposed by the Austrian Government and has already attracted the support of most nations.
Peter Prove, director of the WCC’s Commission of the Churches on International Affairs, said the South African initiative addressed "a tough but solvable global problem" with an ethical approach "which all people of faith and goodwill will appreciate and understand". "We call on all members of the international community to support it."
Nuclear weapons were denounced as "a sin against God" at the first sssembly of the WCC in 1948.
– DAVID ADAMS
