Letter to Nobel Peace Laureates - November 2010

Dear Friends,

As the 11th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates gathers in Hiroshima, 65 years after that city experienced the devastation and continued effects of a single nuclear bomb; we ask this gathering of extraordinary change-makers to bring the full weight of your talents to bear toward bringing a decisive end to this weapon of mass-destruction. As Quaker organizations whose work in the world has sought to heal the wounds of war and bring conditions for peace to all people, we write to underscore the urgency of abolishing nuclear weapons from the world for evermore.

As peacemakers, those gathered for this summit understand that the world is not divided among good actors who can be trusted with the keys to global-scale destruction and bad actors who cannot. Terrible acts have been committed in the name of good people throughout history, and there is no safe keeper for weapons of war that hold the power to end civilized life.

No doubt each Nobel Peace Laureate gathered at this summit was told time and again that the transformative work they had undertaken was impossible; yet you persevered, and accomplished things so many had deemed unachievable. We have been told this nuclear “genie” cannot be returned to the bottle, that nations must maintain and even modernize their massive nuclear arsenals to deter lurking threats. Yet we know that it is an even greater impossibility to live under the shadow of this devastating weaponry. We call upon each of you to act today to yet again accomplish what must be made possible: abolishing nuclear weapons from this planet by 2020.

This is not an “anti-nuclear” call, or an “anti-war” call – it is an every-cause call, for everyone. The cost of building and maintaining this arsenal of destruction takes away from critical investments in every other priority nations might otherwise pursue. The nuclear weapons production cycle will poison our environment for millennia to come. The looming threat from the accidental or intentional use of nuclear weapons threatens all of human existence.

We ask the 11th Summit of Nobel Laureates to call upon nations of the world to eliminate nuclear weapons by 2020, and to follow that call with your own individual actions to bring about this change for the benefit of all humankind.

In Peace,

Shan Cretin
General Secretary
American Friends Service Committee
1501 Cherry Street
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19102-1403
U.S.A.

David Atwood
Director and Representative for Disarmament and Peace
Quaker United Nations Office - Geneva
13 Avenue du Mervelet
1209 Geneva
Switzerland

Jane Orion Smith
General Secretary
Canadian Friends Service Committee
60 Lowther Avenue
Toronto, Ontario,
Canada M5R 1C7

Andrew Tomlinson
Director and Representative
Quaker United Nations Office – New York
777 United Nations Plaza
New York, New York 10017
U.S.A.

Martina Weitsch
Joint Representative
Quaker Council for European Affairs
Square Ambiorix 50
B-1000 Brussels

Helen Drewery
General Secretary
Quaker Peace & Social Witness
Friends House
Euston Road
London NW1 2BJ

Joe Volk
Executive Secretary
Friends Committee for National Legislation
245 Second Street, NE
Washington, D.C. 20002
U.S.A.