International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons 2023

The United Nations observes 26 September every year as the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. The aim of the day is to enhance public awareness about the threat posed to humanity by nuclear weapons and the necessity for their total elimination. It provides an opportunity to educate the public and their leaders about the real benefits of eliminating such weapons, and the social and economic costs of perpetuating them.

In 2013, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) declared September 26 to be the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons (Nuclear Abolition Day). The aims of the day are to enhance public awareness about the threat posed to humanity by nuclear weapons and the necessity for their total elimination.

The UNGA resolution establishing the day (UNGA Res 68 32) also calls for progress on a nuclear weapons convention – a global treaty involving the nuclear armed states in the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons under strict and effective international control.

September 26 is also the anniversary of the incident in 1983 when a nuclear war was almost launched due to malfunctions in the Soviet nuclear weapons early warning system, which erroneously detected a US ballistic missile attack against Moscow. The incident is graphically portrayed in the award winning docu-drama ‘The Man who Saved the World.’

History of International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons 2023

In 1946, the General Assembly’s first resolution established that the Atomic Energy Commission has the mandate to make specific proposals for the control of nuclear energy and the elimination of not only atomic weapons but also all other major weapons adaptable to mass destruction.

The General Assembly endorsed the objective of general and complete disarmament in 1959. The first Special Session of the General Assembly Devoted to Disarmament, held in 1978, further recognized that nuclear disarmament should be the priority objective in the field of disarmament.

The international arms-control framework contributed to international security since the Cold War. It also acted as a brake on the use of nuclear weapons. On July 7, 2017, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was adopted. This Treaty is so important since it is the first multilateral legally-binding instrument for nuclear disarmament to have been negotiated in 20 years. On August 2, 2019, the United States’ withdrawal spelt the end of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, though the United States and the Russian Federation had previously committed to eliminating an entire class of nuclear missiles.

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