On Friday, January 20, 2023, a coalition of antinuclear groups celebrated the second anniversary of the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW or the Ban Treaty) and rallied in New York City to urge the U.S. to join the Treaty. The group gathered in front of the New York Public Library (on 42nd Street) before marching to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations to deliver their message.

“It’s important to promote the Ban Treaty and to persuade the U.S. to sign it at this particular time, because the world is now embroiled, since the invasion of Ukraine, in the worst nuclear emergency since the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962,” said Jack Baldwin of The Manhattan Project for a Nuclear-Free World. “Two nuclear-armed superpowers are locked in a deadly confrontation in which nuclear weapons have not been taken off the table. The whole concept of nuclear weapons as a deterrent has been disproved by this new European war.”

Said June Tano, Morningside Monthly Meeting of Religious Society of Friends: “In the process of acquiring and maintaining nuclear weapons, the nuclear-armed states have long tormented their own people and the people of the non-nuclear countries. The earth has also been heavily contaminated with nuclear material. Possession of nuclear weapons must be recognized as both a human rights violation and an environmental issue. I truly respect those countries that had the courage to ratify the TPNW.”