ICRC commends Philippines on ratification of treaty vs nuclear weapons
MANILA – The International Committee of the Red Cross commended the Philippine government after its Senate approved last Monday, February 1,2021 the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). The ICRC in its statement said the ratification is an important contribution toward a world free of nuclear weapons.
As soon as the formal ratification reaches the United Nations, the Philippines will be the 53rd State to ratify the treaty, which took effect last January 22,2021.
The Philippine was part of the 122 States that adopted the treaty in July 2017 and became one of the 50 States that signed the treaty when it opened on September 20,2017.
The Treaty clearly and explicitly bans the use, threat of use, development, production, testing and stockpiling of nuclear weapons, and calls on all States Parties to no assist, encourage or induce anyone in any way to get involved in an activity prohibited by the statute.
The Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement worldwide has consistently called on all States to ratify the Treaty, to prevent massive human suffering and environmental devastation as witness in the 1945 Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.
“This Treaty - the result of more than 75 years of work – sends a clear signal that nuclear weapons are unacceptable from a moral, humanitarian, and now a legal point of view. It sets in motion even higher legal barriers and an even greater stigmatization of nuclear warheads that already exists. It allows us to imagine a world free from these inhumane weapons as an achievable goal,” said ICRC President Peter Maurer, in a statement on the Treaty’s recent entry into force. (Melo M. Acuña)
ICRC President Peter Maurer (Photo during his visit to Manila last June 4,2019/Melo M. Acuna)
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