GIVE PEACE A CHANCE!
TOGETHER FOR PEACE, ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE PROTECTION
ABOLISH NUCLEAR WEAPONS!
Event accompanying the first UN conference of the partner states of the Treaty on the Prohibiton of Nuclear Weapons
JUNE 19, 2022 | 5 TO 10 PM
WILHELMINE MOIK HALL | ÖGB CATAMARAN
1020 VIENNA | JOHANN BÖHM PLATZ
Public Transport:
Take subway U2 dircetion Seestadt till station „Donaumarina / ÖGB“
Organisation: www.ipb.org | www.abfang.org | www.wilpf.at
REGISTRATION: contact@abfang.org
PROGRAM
> Program of the Peace Conference from June 19th 2022 „Give Peace a Chance!“, Vienna (online version)
> Program folder for self printing (pdf, A4)
> Information about the speakers and the participants of the podium discussion
5:00 pm Opening of the exhibition of peace & environmental groups
Opening of the accompanying Exhibition by peace and environmental organisations
> Information about the participating peace and environmental organisations
6:00 Welcome & Opening of the Conference
Voices for Peace from Ukraine and Russia
Video message from Yurii Sheliazhenko (Ukraine), Executiv Secretary, Ukrainian Pacifist Movement, and Oleg Bodrov (Russia), ecologist, chairman of the Public Council of the Southern Shore of the Gulf of Finland
6:30 pm Lectures
The Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty: Opportunities and Next Step
Rebecca Johnson (UK), Peace activist, co-founder of ICAN (International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons), Director and Founderof the Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy
Nuclear weapons and health, viewed globally – Prevention of medical and humanitarian dangers
Klaus Renoldner (Austria), physician, President of IPPNW (International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War) Austria
From nuclear testing to implementing a nuclear ban treaty:
Meaning of Peace for Pacific Islands
Vanessa Griffen (Fidji Islands), Pacific ICAN activist, Associate of Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG) on TPNW; feminist and gender and development specialist
Peace, Security and Climate & Environmental Crisis
Michael Müller (Germany), Federal Chairman of the Friends of Nature in Germany, retired State Secretary
The international trade union movement and peace
Philip Jennings (UK), former General Secretary of UNI Global Union, Co-President of the IPB (International Peace Bureau)
8:00 pm Panel Discussion
Cooperation of peace and environmental movements – Way to an eco-social society?
Helga Kromp-Kolb, environmental meteorologist, fwu
Phill Gittins, Education Director WBW (World beyond War)
Heidi Meinzolt, Europe Regional Representative, WILPF
Alex Praça, Brazilian Journalist
Alessandro Capuzzo, Trieste Non-Nuclear Movement
Heinz Gärtner, political scientist, OIIP (Austrian Institute for International Affairs)
9:00 pm Open Discussion
9:30 pm buffet (end of event 10:00 pm)
After the opening and the lectures, peace songs will be performed by Reinhart Sellner and Timo Brunnbauer.
Agenda is subject to change without notice
Registration is requested: contact[at]abfang.org
Livestream and Zoom link will be published here.
Languages: English, German
Two professional translators from WILPF (Women‘s International League for Peace and Freedom) will provide simultaneous translation: Helena Nyberg, WILPF Switzerland, and Michaela Leithner, WILPF Austria
Organisation & sponsoring: International Peace Bureau (IPB), Aktionsbündnis für Frieden, aktive Neutralität und Gewaltfreiheit (AbFaNG), Women’s International League for Peace & Freedem Austria (WILPF)
Supported by International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) Austria, ITUC CSI IGB, Attac, transform! europe, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) Austria, Forum Wissenschaft und Umwelt (fwu), Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB), Union of International Associations (UIA)
Give Peace a Chance! sang John Lennon and Yoko Ono more than 50 years ago. Today this call for peace is more urgent than ever. The climate and environmental crisis, increasing inequality, the intensified global military and armed drone operations, the militarization of the EU, and the multiple regional wars require one joint effort of peace, environmental, and climate movements for peace and the renunciation of violence and to save our planet. The entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in January 2021 is a beacon of hope for all people in actual conflicts and crises.
Disarmament and arms conversion are essential elements of the necessary transformation into one eco-social, fit for the future development of society. Only if we succeed in transferring the massive funds for the military and armaments – $5 billion are wasted on this worldwide every day – to education, health, technological transformation, and social balance is a future worth living for humans and nature possible. Most important is the definitive ban on nuclear weapons.
Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW)
The UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons heralded a paradigm shift in thinking about security. The TPNW came into force on January 22, 2021 and prohibits the development, testing, production, owning, and deployment of nuclear weapons and the threat of these. In contrast to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), where the participating “nuclear powers“ have blocked each other for more than a decade with nothing happening towards the disarmament and destruction of the 13,400 nuclear warheads worldwide, the TPNW is based on a democratic development process. It thus opens a door to a possible nuclear weapons-free future. UN Secretary-General António Guterres welcomed the entry into force of the agreement. The first multilateral nuclear disarmament treaty in more than two decades is “an important step towards a world without nuclear weapons and a strong demonstration of support for a multilateral approach to nuclear disarmament”.
