wfn.org | WCC UPDATE: WCC Advocacy Week at UN seminar discusses

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World Council of Churches - Update
Contact: + 41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release - 17/11/2004

"DANGER: MEMORY OF NUCLEAR THREAT IS FADING" WCC SEMINAR AT UN WARNS

Photos available free of charge, see below
Cf. WCC press update PU-04-59 of 16 November 2004
Cf . WCC press release PR-04-56 of 11 November 2004

After 1989, there was hope that the end of the Cold War would put a stop to
the use of nuclear power as a guarantee of "global security ". Since then
however, not only have the superpowers retained nuclear weapons, but
additional states have developed nuclear capability, and the Nuclear
Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) seems to be in serious crisis. In May 2005,
this treaty will be reviewed in conference at the United Nations in New York,
and the churches will need to focus their advocacy and education efforts
during the coming months leading up to this conference.

"We must continue the work that has gone before, when church leaders were
active in capturing the imagination of the people in hoping for a world
without nuclear weapons, and congregations were actively standing up for
nuclear disarmament,"said Victor Hsu, a senior advisor with Church World
Service.

"People don't feel the threat [of nuclear war], especially the younger
generation," said Choice Ufuoma Okoro, originally from Nigeria and now
working with the United Church of Canada. 

The World Council of Churches (WCC) and its member churches have advocated
against nuclear arms for decades. In its most recent statement on the NPT in
February 2004, the WCC executive committee reaffirmed that "the only ultimate
protection against nuclear weapons is their total elimination". In March this
year, a WCC delegation of church leaders visited a series of NATO non-nuclear
states to argue for alternatives to nuclear deterrence.

The WCC position was echoed by speakers at a 16 November public seminar on
the subject of "Churches' quest for a nuclear arms-free world" held during
the 14-19 November WCC International Affairs and Advocacy Week at the UN in
New York.

Speakers included the UN under-secretary-general for Disarmament, Nobuyasu
Abe, the secretary-general of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission
(Blix Commission), Ambassador Henrik Sahlander, and the executive director of
the Canadian organization Project Ploughshares, Dr Ernie Regehr. With their
high-level expertise on nuclear weapons issues, the speakers were able to
provide current information on the status of the NPT, and to place the role
of the churches and other civil society actors within the context of the
global political situation. 

"Nuclear weapons contradict the very notion of life that churches hold
sacred," said Henrik Sahlander. "Churches can work from this perspective to
revive the work against nuclear weapons and advocate for support of the
non-proliferation treaty."

"There are memorials in Nagasaki and Hiroshima that are very important to the
Japanese people, but now the numbers of visitors to these memorials are
declining, and this is tragic to me and my fellow Japanese citizens," said
Nobuyasu Abe. "We must remind political leaders of the world to remember the
effects of these bombs. Unfortunately this memory is fading." 

Media contact person: Dr Laurence Konmla Bropleh, permanent representative,
WCC UN Liaison Office, tel: 1 212- 867 5891, Mobile: 1 202 258 4166 email:
lbr@wcc-coe.org 

Information on the 2004 WCC Advocacy Week is available at:
http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/international/advocweek04.html

More information on the work of the WCC UN Liaison Office (UNLO) in New York
is available at
http://www.wcc-un.org 

Photos from the 14-19 November International Advocacy Week are available on
our website at:
http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/international/advocweek-photos.html

Additional information: Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363
media@wcc-coe.org

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The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 342, in more
than 120 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian traditions.
The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but works cooperatively with
the WCC. The highest governing body is the assembly, which meets
approximately every seven years. The WCC was formally inaugurated in 1948 in
Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its staff is headed by general secretary Samuel Kobia
from the Methodist church in Kenya.

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