19.11.2022.
Pugwash secretariat:
On 17 November 2022, Pugwash Argentina organized a virtual seminar in which the President of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, Amb. Sergio Duarte, was invited as a panelist. Other panelists were María Pía Devoto, Director of the Association for Public Policies (APP) and ICAN representative in Argentina, and Karen Hallberg, co-founder of Pugwash Argentina and Council Member of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs and was moderated by Darío D’Atri, journalist, also co-founder of Pugwash Argentina. The organizers acknowledged the presence of members of Pugwash Latin America, Pugwash Brazil, other concerned scientists, and several active and enthusiastic young participants, many of them members of the Daisaku Ikeda International Center for Peace Studies and Soka Gakkai Argentina.
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) is the first worldwide international agreement that prohibits nuclear weapons and includes provisions for their total elimination and to address the humanitarian and environmental consequences of atomic explosions. It establishes new commitments that are not contained in other treaties, such as the obligation to provide assistance to the victims of nuclear explosions and repair the damage caused by them as well as the prohibition of stationing nuclear weapons in the territory of third states.
This treaty is based on international humanitarian law and on the principle of humanity, since nuclear weapons are the most destructive, inhumane and catastrophic weapons ever built. It entered into force in January 2021. Currently 91 countries have signed the agreement and 68 have ratified it. Although Argentina has supported the treaty since its inception in 2017 at the UN and voted for its adoption, it is the only country in Latin America that has not yet signed it.
Read the full note on the Pugwash website www.pugwash.org