This statement is based on the statement made by 26 faith leaders in the UK in a letter to The Times on 13 March 2015. The statement was co-ordinated by Religions for Peace UK, Pax Christi UK and a range of Churches and other faith groups.
A faith perspective on the use and threat of use of nuclear weapons
Our faith traditions share a belief in the dignity and unique value of every human life. Consequently common to our traditions is the invocation that we shall not kill. Our faiths discern a strong prohibition to mass slaughter and the indiscriminate killing of civilians. The threat of mass destruction can never become the norm among nation states and it therefore follows that our common security must be achieved by means other than the threat of use of nuclear weapons.
The Humanitarian Consequences of nuclear weapons and international law
Over the past two years three intergovernmental conferences have examined the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons. The evidence presented at these conferences demonstrates more clearly than ever before the incompatibility of the use of nuclear weapons with principles enshrined in international humanitarian law. Biological and chemical weapons are deemed to be illegitimate under international law and international treaties have been agreed to ban their stockpiling and use. As nuclear weapons are similarly indiscriminate and potentially even more destructive it is very difficult to see why they should not be treated in the same way.
In Vienna in December 2014, at the last of the three conferences, a message was read on behalf of His Holiness, Pope Francis. This was a pivotal moment in that Conference. In his statement Pope Francis said “I am convinced that the desire for peace and fraternity planted deep in the human heart will bear fruit in concrete ways to ensure that nuclear weapons are banned once and for all, to the benefit of our common home." At the conclusion of this conference the Government of Austria pledged to work with others to fill the legal gap with respect to nuclear weapons. Proponents of a nuclear weapons ban treaty argue that such a treaty could strengthen both the non-proliferation and disarmament pillars of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The Humanitarian Pledge initiated by the Government of Austria has since been signed by the majority of the world governments. It has not yet found support among nuclear weapons states or many of their close allies but it is clear that there is now a shared conviction that we must work out the path to the elimination of nuclear weapons.
