Nuclear Ban Petition Stats and Treaty Ratification Update

Students sign a petition to move the money from nuclear weapons to clean energy and other human needs in Lafayette Park, north of the White House. Photo by Ellen Thomas.

June 2020

By Ellen Thomas
Disarm/End Wars

At the WILPF US Triennial Congress in Minneapolis in August 2017, a petition to United States Senators was launched asking for ratification of the new Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. As of May 2020, 37 countries have ratified the Treaty; 50 ratifications are required for it to go into effect—just 13 more countries to go! You can find up-to-date information about the Treaty at ICAN.

Hundreds of cities, and local and regional bodies all around the world have also spoken out in support of the TPNW through the ICAN Cities Appeal. On ICAN’s website, you can find a list of cities that have responded to this appeal so far.

The total number of signatures on the paper petition collected by WILPF US members all over the country between July 2017 and February 20, 2020 is 5,688. There is also an online petition which 2,675 people have signed.
 

Left: St. Louis WILPF branch members table on Earth Day in 2017, where the petition awaits signatures. Photo by Ellen Thomas.

Eleven WILPF US Disarm/End Wars Committee members were planning to hand-deliver these petitions to the UN Secretary-General in New York during the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference in late April, but the conference was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It has been tentatively rescheduled to January 2021 and hopefully we will be able to deliver the petitions then.

In the meantime, should opportunities again arise for circulating the petition, you can find it linked on the WILPF US Disarm/End Wars Committee page, and at http://prop1.org.

Here are the totals of signatures on the paper petition by year:

2017 -  2,226
2018 -  2,233
2019 -  1,029
2020 -     200
            5,688   signatures on the paper petition, plus
            2,675   signatures on the online petition, for a total of
            8,363   signatures as of 5/23/20
            ====

Here is a descending total of signatures by state:
 

There is also a petition to the House of Representatives asking for support of a bill introduced by DC's Eleanor Holmes Norton, introduced as HR-2419 in the 2019-2020 session, known as the “Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act,” which many WILPF US members have circulated as well. Congresswoman Norton has introduced evolving versions of this legislation every session since 1994, after Voter Initiative 37 won the election in Washington, DC, in September 1993.