2023 World Conference against A and H Bombs
International Meeting – Session 2Roland Nivet
National Spokesman, French Peace Movement
FranceGreetings to all participants in the world conference against A and H bombs.
Greetings to all the hibakusha and their families. Respect for the admirable work
done by Japanese pacifists, who maintain a permanent mobilization to denounce
the crimes against humanity that were the atomic bombings of Hiroshima andNagasaki, and to win the total elimination of nuclear weapons.
Nuclear weapons, like other weapons of mass destruction, are illegal underinternational law. Article 6 of the NPT states that the commitment of States toeliminate them and the Treaty on The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear
Weapons (TPNW), which prohibits the threat or use of nuclear weapons, came into
force on January 21, 2021.
They are dangerous and threaten the very existence of mankind, costly anddeprive people of the means to live, militarily useless as they prevent no war
and allow Russia, a country nuclear weapons, to take advantage of thepossession of these weapons to attack and invade a neighboring country.
Finally, they are morally inadmissible, as the Pope emphasized in Hiroshima.
Faced with the power of the nuclear-armed states and the multinationals that makeup the military-industrial complex, faced with the digital empires (GAFAM), a single
component of which is capable of spending $40 billion in just a few days to buy
Twitter, faced with the immensity of the challenges we face, we are sometimes led
to doubt our ability to thwart their monstrous and criminal plans.
More than ever, we must be aware that it is the vast majority of peoples whoreject these nuclear weapons, that we have with us international law, theUnited Nations, the vast majority of the world's peoples, and that we have aduty to act of governments, trade unions, political parties and NGOs aroundthe world, and that we have won huge victories, including the ban on
chemical and biological weapons and the NPT and, more recently, the Treaty
on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).
We need to be aware that peace advocates are a decisive force in the face ofthe military-industrial lobbies and their media supporters, and in the face of theproducers and sellers of weapons - in other words, a minority who, as always,influence political decisions in favor of a militarization of the world that benefits
them, and whose peoples are the first victims. At our last national congress inNovember 2022, we stressed that we were facing challenges that threaten
1the very existence of humanity, and indeed of all life on the planet.
The importance of these challenges was underlined by the UN Secretary-General,
who in September 2022 declared that "inequalities are growing, hardships arespreading, the United Nations Charter and the ideals it upholds are being
undermined are in peril!
Russia's aggression against Ukraine increases the gravity of theinternational situation and carries the risk of a globalization of war, because theconfrontation with the presence of NATO in the background broadens the issues.
In short, we face global challenges through

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the peril of nuclear weapons,
the militarization of the world
Climate change
the economic crisis and development inequalities
the rise of far-right forces

And yet, while we should be investing in human welfare, global militaryspending is from $1,000 billion in 2000 to $2,250 billion in 2023. At the sametime, 850 million people suffer from hunger. In this situation, what are thepoints of support from which we can fight, together, to defend and build
alternatives for the future? peace and achieve the total elimination of nuclear
weapons?
There are 5 main points of support•

the United Nations Charter, which represents a positive
breakthrough in the history of mankind by making peace a right and afoundation of international law•

United Nations resolutions in favour of a culture of peace adopted
at the UN in 1999•

the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which set concrete objectivesfor peace.

•Scientists are working hard to combat climate change, but by taking
action to take better account of the consequences of military activities on climatechange, such as the risk of a nuclear winter, which has already been
documented in numerous studies.

•Last but not least, people's aspiration to well-being.

Is it easy? NO! all the more so since the Covid crisis has contributed to amajor shift in individual behavior in a direction that does not appear to be thecase. doesn't encourage commitment but rather withdrawal.
But for our future and the future of the planet, we have no other path thanPeace.
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At this point I must mention the situation in France, which is marked bysocial unrest and violence and a policy in favor of a war economy.
In his speech to the armed forces in January 2023, French President EmmanuelMacron called for, and I quote, "budgetary efforts in favour of the armedforces". military spending for several decades". His stated aim is to "always
be one war ahead, to win the wars of the future".
proposes war as a prospect for future generations, while for our own
futurepeace is the only way to build a civilization and a world that are
finally human.
Despite our mobilizations from January to July 2023 we failed to develop a sufficient
movement to prevent the vote on the new 2024-2030 military programming law,
especially as the mainstream media totally censored the Peace movements.
The law was passed by 408 deputies, while 87 voted against and 53
abstained (see National Assembly website). It amounts to 413 billion
euros, a 40% increase on the previous law.
previous year. It includes 60 billion euros for new nuclear weapons in violationof the NPT- signed and ratified by France. On the eve of our on July 14th,
President Macron boasted "We're proud to have doubled the military budget in
the space of 2 military programming laws.
We refuse to be drawn into this logic of war and demand that budgets beredirected towards social needs and an economy for peace.
We are continuing our fight to get France to sign and ratify the treaty
banning nuclear weapons.
Let's move on to the a war in Ukraine, which is being used as a further
pretext to increase military spending, even though Macron says that theseincreases were committed to and planned before this war.
Faced with this war, we have from the outset••

denounced Russia's aggression against Ukraine
affirmed our solidarity with the Ukrainian people but also with pacifists inUkraine and Russia••

stressed that war is never the solution

advocated a diplomatic solution led by the United Nations, withconcrete proposals in line with the UN Charter (articles 2, 23 and 51 in particular).
This position does not prevent us from denouncing the negative role played by theUSA and NATO in the process that led to this war, by enlarging NATO to Eastern
Europe in contradiction with the commitments made after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
This does not detract from the responsibility for Russia's aggression against theUkraine.

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As the Mouvement de la Paix, we call on France to withdraw from NATO,especially as we consider this military organization to be contrary to the United
Nations Charter.
Everywhere in the world, our responsibility is to unite all peoples, in our
respective countries and on a global scale, to preserve not only Ukraine andthe Ukrainian people, but also the Russian people and the Ukrainian people.
humanity as a whole from the unspeakable suffering that could result fromthe globalization of conflict and the use of nuclear weapons.
I'd like to finish by mentioning the Vienna International Summit for Peace in Ukraine,in which I took part along with 8 other delegates from the Mouvement de la Paix. The
summit set objectives for the struggle to unite the world in the cause of peace.
In France, after the days of August 6 and 9, we are calling for action on
September 21 (day of International Day of Peace), September 26 (UNInternational Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons), andculminating in the national action on Saturday October 7 for peace in
Ukraine as part of the global week of action advocated in Vienna between
September 30 and 8 October 2023.
We will act•

For an immediate ceasefire and a diplomatic solution in Ukraine and for
all conflicts in the world.

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respect for the principles and charter of the United Nationsfor France and all the world's states to apply Article 6 of the NPT and sign,
ratify and implement the Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty (NWBT).
The time has come to mobilize in the face of the dangers of a worldwide
extension of war, or even the use of nuclear weapons.
The Hiroshima and Nagasaki conferences will signal a new dynamic for the totalelimination of nuclear weapons and for Peace.
Long live friendship and solidarity between peoples, long live peace! Long
live Japanese pacifists. Long live the KOBE formula!
Roland Nivet for Mouvement de la Paix - August 2023

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