Nuclear disarmament must continue being the highest priority in the disarmament field

September 15, 2017

Nuclear disarmament must continue being the highest priority in the disarmament field

Speech by Ambassador of Juan antonio Fernández Palacios to the IAEA Board of Governors Agenda item 9: “Other issues” Vienna, 14 September 2017
Mr President,

The adoption of the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty on 7 July 2017 and its next opening for signature on 20 September constitute a historic milestone. It is a result of a long and delayed process of multilateral negotiations since UN General Assembly adopted the first resolution on 24 January 1946 calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

The new Treaty is a deserved tribute to all victims of the use or test of nuclear weapons. It is an acknowledgment of those who have fought against oblivion as the hibakushas.

Through this Treaty the international community clearly establishes that nuclear weapons are not only heartless, immoral and indefensible from the ethical point of view but also illegal from now on.

Mr President,

We are pleased that in addition to banning the development, production, manufacture, transference, possession and storage of nuclear weapons, the Treaty explicitly prohibits the threat of their use. Thus, the safety doctrines based on the so-called “nuclear deterrence” are outlawed.

The threat of nuclear weapons is not an exclusive matter of the States possessing them. It involves all the international community as no country will be immune to the folly of a nuclear attack. The use of a negligible part of the almost 15 000 existing nuclear weapons will have catastrophic implications for our planet.

As set forth in the Treaty, the single effective way of guarantying that humanity will never suffer a terrible impact of those weapons is their banning and comprehensive elimination. Consequently, nuclear disarmament is and must continue being the highest priority in the disarmament field.

Mr President,

To conclude I would like to recall the words of a person that dedicated his life to fight for peace and justice and who highlighted in several occasions, the danger of nuclear weapons for the existence of the human species, the historical leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz. On 12 October 1979, Fidel in an address to UN Assembly, stated, “Enough of the illusion that the world's problems can be solved with nuclear weapons. Bombs might kill the hungry, the sick and the ignorant, but they cannot kill hunger, disease, ignorance and the people's just rebellion. In the holocaust, the wealthy will also die. They are the ones that stand to lose the most in this world”.



I thank you very much.



(Cubaminrex-Embacuba Austria)