Project Ploughshares: Abolish Nuclear Weapons Section

	NATO Nuclear Policy • Documents
	The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty • Documents • NPT Reporting • Background
	Ballistic Missile Defence • Documents • Background
	Non-Weaponization of Space • Documents • Space Security Index

Abolish Nuclear Weapons

Churches have a long history of addressing nuclear weapons issues. In 1982 a delegation of Canadian church leaders, with the support and participation of Project Ploughshares, met with Prime Minister Trudeau in the context of heightened public anxiety about the nuclear arms race. In 1983 Canadian church leaders and Project Ploughshares met again with Prime Minister Trudeau and presented a statement which affirmed clearly the churches' unqualified rejection of the moral validity of nuclear weapons. The church leaders stated, "We must say without reservation that nuclear weapons are ultimately unacceptable as agents of national security. We can conceive of no circumstances under which the use of nuclear weapons could be justified and consistent with the will of God, and we must therefore conclude that nuclear weapons must also be rejected as a means of threat or deterrence".

In 1983 at the World Council of Churches Assembly in Vancouver, churches declared that the production, deployment and use of nuclear weapons are a crime against humanity and that such activities must be condemned on ethical and theological grounds. The Holy See has also condemned nuclear war-fighting and made the elimination of nuclear weapons a goal for ethical military policy. In 1998 Canadian church leaders, with the assistance of Project Ploughshares, issued an open letter to the Prime Minister re-affirming their theological and moral opposition to nuclear weapons.

Canada stated in its 30 April 2004 statement to the NPT Preparatory Committee at the UN:
Canada's objective has been and remains the complete elimination of nuclear weapons. Nuclear disarmament is in both the general security interest of the international community and in our own particular security interest as one member of that community. As the 2000 Review Conference Final Document reminded us, the only true guarantee against the threat or use of nuclear weapons is their elimination. We look to the nuclear-weapon States to engage actively on this issue and to make further progress to reduce and to eliminate their nuclear weapons.

Project Ploughshares supports the theological and moral opposition of the churches to nuclear weapons by engaging the Canadian and international church community, as well as the Canadian government and the interested policy community, in developing policies and concrete steps that advance the elimination of nuclear weapons.