by Allison Pytlak

Ridding the world of nuclear weapons is a monumental task that will necessitate cooperation and trust, overcoming narrow national interests and boundaries. But it is not easy work and will require cooperation from many sides.

Man's continued existence on this planet is threatened with nuclear extinction. Never has there been such despair among men.

- The World Conference of Religions for Peace, Kyoto Declaration, 1970

The words above were written in 1970 in Kyoto, Japan, during the First World Assembly of Religions for Peace - the world's largest and most representative multireligious coalition. That same year, a landmark agreement called the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entered into force, bringing with it the hope that nuclear war could be permanently averted through complete disarmament.

But forty years later, those sentences are still frighteningly relevant. As the international community prepares to evaluate the NPT during an important review conference in May 2010, it is imperative that Religions for Peace continue its own mission in this regard with renewed vigor and conviction.

Disarmament has always been an area of special significance for Religions for Peace. The organization was established in the midst of the Cold War at a time when the earlier momentum for disarmament negotiations was beginning to slow and the movement needed to be energized. The abolition of nuclear weapons was seen by many people as absolutely central to the creation of peace.

Moreover, nuclear disarmament was a topic of great interest to Homer A. Jack, the first secretary-general of Religions for Peace. His expertise as a clergyman, pacifist, and social activist provided the framework for effective and forward-looking action across the entire organizational network.

An Issue for All

Nuclear weapons pose the greatest threat to the human family and are unconditionally immoral and unacceptable. All religious traditions affirm the ultimate value of life and call on us to respect it. Therefore, the promise of a nuclear weapon to destroy all of creation - human, animal, and even the planet itself - is an affront to that which all religious traditions value.

That the number of weapons continues to grow in the stockpiles of only a few nations enables divisions and defines the concept of security in a one-dimensional way. This is a definition that creates insecurity by populating the world with more tools of violence and more fear. It perpetuates inequality. A tiny handful of nations holds the existence of humanity captive and simultaneously proclaims that others have no right to acquire nuclear weapons. A challenge to equality is a challenge to the establishment of goodwill among all persons. Simply put, there is no use for nuclear weapons that is consistent with moral principles, civilized values, and humanitarian law.

The Religions for Peace Approach

The disarmament work of Religions for Peace is rooted in its notion of "shared security." Shared security can also be understood as a new political paradigm that echoes the holistic notions of peace found in the world's great religions. It recognizes that each person's vulnerability is an invitation to approach others with compassion and that our interrelatedness calls us to cooperate to protect all people and our planet. It is a vision in which the security of one person depends on that of all others, and no one is safer than the most vulnerable among us.

Shared security was advanced by eight hundred senior religious leaders from more than one hundred countries at the Religions for Peace Eighth World Assembly in Kyoto in 2006. Before that, it found concrete expression in more than thirty-six years of advancing nuclear disarmament through collective statements, publications, partnership building, and advocacy.

This began in 1970 at the First World Assembly. There, disarmament formed the subject of a plenary address from Dr. Hideki Yukawa of Japan, a Nobel laureate in physics. Disarmament found a place in the final declaration that was issued by the assembly. It stated that "clearly peace is imperiled by the ever-quickening race for armaments, the widening gap between the rich and the poor within and among nations, and by the tragic violation of human rights all over the world. In our consideration of the problems of disarmament, we become convinced that peace cannot be found through the stockpiling of weapons. We therefore call for immediate steps toward general disarmament, to include all weapons of destruction - conventional, nuclear, chemical, and bacteriological."

Those in Kyoto pledged that Religions for Peace would do all in its power to "educate public opinion and awaken public conscience to take a firm stand against war and the illusory hope of peace through military victory."

The pledge was put into practice shortly after Religions for Peace began to establish itself as an important and unique voice in the antinuclear community. One of its first activities was to launch the Disarmament Report. This was a series of reports produced over three years that explored disarmament and security issues from a nonaligned and primarily religious perspective. It was produced by Religions for Peace and the United Methodist Church, and later with the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy.

Religions for Peace also played a central role in the development of the NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace and Security (NGOCDPS) at the United Nations in New York. This committee, as well as its counterpart in Geneva, grew out of the recognition that nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have a right to representation as enshrined in the UN Charter. Representation and access to the United Nations has traditionally been easier for some groups than others, and in the climate of the 1970s disarmament NGOs faced a great challenge in having their voices heard.

Adopting a "strength in numbers" approach was one way to overcome this barrier. As such, in 1973, the secretary-general of Religions for Peace - based in New York - convened the first meeting of what became the NGOCDPS. The committee acts as an important liaison between the NGO community and the UN Secretariat. It is still in active existence today and has established a solid reputation for providing services and facilities to hundreds of citizens' groups concerned with the peace and disarmament activities of the United Nations. Religions for Peace is a leading member of the committee.

Urging a New Appraisal of National, World Security

The formation of this committee proved to be important throughout the 1970s, when the movement for a special UN session devoted entirely to the subject of disarmament emerged. The idea for an open forum that would engage all member states, and NGOs too, had been circulating for nearly two decades, but it was not until much later that it happened. When it did, Religions for Peace was at the forefront of advancing what became the 1978 First Special Session on Disarmament (SSOD I). Religions for Peace devoted an article to the subject in a 1972 Disarmament Report. As well, the organization advocated strongly for the General Assembly resolution that ultimately made the session a reality. It helped to facilitate briefings for diplomats and public awareness events and also helped to launch a new publication called Disarmament Times.

A unique aspect of SSOD I as compared with other UN meetings was that it allowed NGOs a space in which they could present their views to diplomats. To deliver the address, Religions for Peace invited its honorary chairman and president of Rissho Kosei-kai, Rev. Nikkyo Niwano, who emphasized the need for general and complete disarmament. Other Religions for Peace affiliates had been chosen by their own organizations to speak as well, including Shri Radhakrishna of the Gandhi Peace Foundation, Sean MacBride of the International Peace Bureau, and Chief K. O. K. Onyioha of the Organization of Traditional Religions of Africa.

A second Special Session was convened three years later, and this time, even larger numbers of civil society were permitted to make presentations over a two-day period. This time, Secretary-General Homer A. Jack spoke on behalf of Religions for Peace during the NGO session and was joined by nearly a dozen affiliates nominated by their own organizations. Religions for Peace played a leading role in organizing what became the largest demonstration in North American history, when three-quarters of a million people gathered at the United Nations and walked to Central Park in support of peace and disarmament.

Outside the United Nations context, Religions for Peace was able to use its special platform for dialogue and cooperation to advance disarmament with nuclear powers. This was illustrated most vividly in a 1982 mission to China. The purpose was to show that world religious leaders urgently wanted a stop of the drift toward nuclear war. A ten-person mission representing five world religions and six countries - India, Japan, Pakistan, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States - was organized and received by a member of the State Council of China and the leader of the Chinese delegation to SSOD II. Discussion focused mostly on what civil society was requesting of governments during the upcoming SSOD II. Afterward, the Chinese hosts noted their surprise in finding that they shared a common language with the delegation of religious leaders on the subject of nuclear war. This served to reinforce perception that religion is a uniting force and can be instrumental in bridging divisions between nations.

Toward the end of the 1980s and in the early 1990s, the focus of the Religions for Peace disarmament agenda broadened to give greater consideration to the threats posed by conventional weapons. It also sometimes overlapped with the organization's work on conflict resolution. Much of this work was carried out by the Standing Commission on Disarmament and Security, which had been established in 1998. The SCDS has enabled the organization to maintain a well-rounded disarmament program that addresses small arms and light weapons, land mines, and most recently, cluster munitions. It has included both religious leaders and outside experts.

In late 2009, the Global Youth Network of Religions for Peace launched a year-long disarmament campaign called Arms Down! Through education, mobilization, and advocacy, the campaign will advance shared security by working to reduce nuclear and conventional weapons and to reallocate military spending to support urgently needed development, as set forth in the Millennium Development Goals. One critical goal is to ensure a positive outcome of the youth network's active interest in this issue over the coming year, which signifies that disarmament will remain a priority with a new generation of religious leaders.

The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)

The history of the Religions for Peace disarmament program has also been closely connected to the history of the NPT. Both came about in the same year, and as the NPT has been a cornerstone of nuclear disarmament efforts for four decades, it has also been a natural focal point for much of the organization's work on disarmament.

The NPT is a multilateral treaty that was negotiated between 1957 and 1968 before entering into force in 1970. Some 190 states have ratified the NPT, becoming "states parties" to the treaty. India, Israel, and Pakistan have not signed or ratified the treaty and have developed nuclear weapons since its entry into force. North Korea did ratify the treaty but announced its withdrawal in 2003. NPT states parties meet every five years to review the treaty's progress.

The NPT centers around three main conditions. First, "non-nuclear weapon states" - those that do not possess nuclear weapons - agreed neither to seek nor to manufacture nuclear weapons and agreed to accept safeguards on their nuclear activities. Second, all states, including the five "nuclear weapon states" - the United States, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, France, and China - agreed to pursue negotiations toward nuclear disarmament. Third, all states agreed to recognize the "right" to develop and use nuclear energy without discrimination.

What seemed like an intelligent formula for containing and eliminating the nuclear threat did not work out so neatly in reality. The vast majority of nonnuclear weapon states have complied with their agreement not to obtain the weapon, but those who already possessed it did not and have increased their stockpiles over time. The result has been a heightened level of disagreement between the nuclear and nonnuclear weapon states that hampers their ability to work together under the treaty.

Discord reached its peak during the 2005 Review Conference. There, states parties failed to agree on an outcome document largely because of the disagreement between nuclear weapon states and nonnuclear weapon states. Those with the weapons emphasized the importance of strengthening nonproliferation efforts and focusing on specific cases of actual and suspected noncompliance with the treaty, and the latter emphasized the importance of compliance with and implementation of past disarmament obligations. As a result of the failure in 2005, the coming review conference in early 2010 faces high pressure to address these divisions in a meaningful way.

Religions for Peace has participated in every NPT Review Conference and will continue to do so in May. Many of its diverse delegations to the conference will be young religious leaders advancing the Arms Down! campaign goal of strengthening the NPT to achieve complete nuclear disarmament.

A New Momentum

This conference also comes at a unique moment in time. Nuclear disarmament has not been a high priority for most people for many years and has been overshadowed by other threats. However, in the last year, there has been a growing chorus of world leaders and public figures demanding nuclear disarmament. Suddenly, hope has returned.

Ridding the world of nuclear weapons is a monumental task that will necessitate cooperation and trust, overcoming narrow national interests and boundaries. But it is not easy work and will require cooperation from many sides. Religious leaders have a pivotal role to play, as they possess the genuine morality, spirituality, and compassion necessary to overcome narrow national interests and boundaries. As Religions for Peace enters its fortieth anniversary year, it is as equally committed to the task as ever and ready to move forward with courage, wisdom, and moral conviction.

We are representatives of diverse religious traditions committed to working together on the basis of shared moral concerns. We share a common moral conviction: We must all work together to eliminate nuclear weapons, reduce overall defense spending and invest in the common good. We can and must work together to build peace.

- Religions for Peace Executive Committee
Statement on Nuclear Weapons, 2008