In the historic event that unfolded at the United Nations yesterday, Fiji deposited its instrument of ratification for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) through a virtual event co-hosted by Fiji and ICAN (International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons).
Speaking to the global audience, Fiji’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, Ambassador Satyendra Prasad stated that Fiji had ratified the TPNW and it was a proud achievement for Fiji to deposit the instrument of ratification with the United Nations on the 3rd Anniversary of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).
He said that even though it has been 3 years since the TPNW was adopted by UN, the Treaty is still not in effect.
“We hope today we are giving further momentum to efforts to get the necessary 50 member states that are needed for the TPNW to come into force. Treaty was very important to Fiji and the whole of the Pacific. Between 1946 and 1966, more than 300 nuclear tests have been conducted across the Pacific, in the air, underground and below the sea - across the vast Blue Pacific.
“The human suffering across the Pacific from decades of exposure to nuclear weapons testing remains one of the most painful legacies of our colonial past. Pacific Islanders have for generations suffered from health consequences that arise from the destruction and contamination of their ecosystems; and from the forced relocation from their ancestral lands to make way for nuclear testing”.
Ambassador Prasad said, “This Treaty highlights the importance Pacific Islanders place on a nuclear free Pacific Ocean. The treaty brings to fruition decades of campaigning by Pacific islanders and Pacific’s civil society, Pacific Island leaders and their young to restore the Blue Pacific region as a region of peace”.
He said the UN’s ‘Agenda for Disarmament’ seeks practical steps to reduce dangers and ease international tensions. This has become even more important in the wake of the COVID Pandemic.
He said that at the UN, “2020 and 2021 is seen as a super year for nature. The world’s climate, oceans and its biodiversity are under strain. The impacts on the oceans biodiversity from generations of nuclear testing; and from storage of nuclear waste below sea and on coast remain to be studied. Their full impact on food and human heath remains to be studied”.
Ambassador Prasad highlighted that “conflicts have become far more diverse. New technologies and asymmetric threats from non-state actors make the disarmament regimes open to new threats. The world has seen in not too distant a past that nuclear states can become highly unstable in the wake of political and economic shocks. COVID19 pandemic may have multiplied this threat of state instability many fold.
“In this environment of growing uncertainty, both the potential for strategic miscalculations and deliberate actions by non-state actors should be seen as a growing risk”.
“To achieve the Global Goals, “the Pacific needs its oceans to be an ocean of peace. To sustainably harness its bounty, the Blue Pacific needs to be an ocean of security. Nuclear disarmament is crucial to making the Pacific an ocean of shared opportunity”.
“The time for a fundamental repurposing of financial, scientific, and human resources away from an industry that supports nuclear weapons to one that helps to find solutions to the World problems – climate change; pandemics; deoxygenation and acidification of oceans; new sustainable food production system; eradication of poverty is the call of the moment”.
Ambassador Prasad said that Pacific Leaders have long called for the “denuclearization of the Blue Pacific. They ask for this because they know that they are stewards. They hold the Blue Pacific in trust for generations that will come after them.
“I pay respect to Hon Prime Minister of Fiji who has personally led this charge; Fijian parliamentarians, countless campaigners who for generations have led efforts to educate Pacific islanders about the extent of the nuclear crisis in our own oceans and region. On all their behalf, on behalf of Pacific Islanders, I call on fellow member states to accelerate the ratification process with a far greater sense of urgency”.
Dr Vanessa Griffen, an ICAN campaigner from Fiji, spoke about Fiji’s long contribution to the development of the Treaty.
She recalled that that generations of campaigners in Fiji and the Pacific region through the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific Movement, the Pacific Conference of Churches and NGO’s and civil society had created a global momentum for the Treaty.
Dr Griffen thanked Fiji for its leadership and support to regional efforts and for convening this global meeting.