STATEMENT ON DEMAND FOR TOTAL PROHIBITION
AND ELIMINATION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS
The parliamentarians in the International Relations Commission of the People’s Power National Assembly of the Republic of Cuba, to commemorate the September 26 International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, and recalling the 70th anniversary of the launch of nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we reiterate the urgent call for prohibition and total elimination of nuclear weapons from the face of earth.
We call upon all parliaments of the world to promote and support actions to achieve that important goal.
On the planet exist today about 16 000 nuclear weapons, more than 4000 of them ready for immediate use. The use or threat of use of these devices, in any circumstances, constitutes a violation of international law and the UN Charter, and a crime against humanity.
We recall that the International Court of Justice, in 1996, came to the unanimous conclusion that there exists an obligation to pursue in good faith and conclude negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament in all its aspects under strict and effective international control.
We support the urgent start of multilateral negotiations for the early conclusion of a convention prohibiting the possession, development, production, acquisition, testing, stockpiling, transfer, use or threat of use of nuclear weapons, and to provide for their destruction.
This Convention might be adopted at the United Nations High-Level International Conference on Nuclear Disarmament, to be held no later than 2018.
Cuban parliamentarians are proud to live in a region free of nuclear weapons, and formally proclaimed a Zone of Peace, at the Second Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, held in Havana on January 29, 2014.
We recall that the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, has been a great supporter in the fight for the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction.
In one of its references to the need for a better world, free of nuclear weapons, wisely he said:
“The peoples have to demand to political leaders their right to live. When the life of humankind, its people and their loved ones are at such a risk, nobody can afford to be indifferent, nor can waste a minute in demanding respect for that right. Tomorrow will be too late. “
International Relations Commission of the People’s Power
National Assembly of the Republic of Cuba
