Building Support for the Nuclear Ban Treaty & New Act to Abolish Nuclear Weapons

Screenshot of Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton during a webinar on April 24 to build political support for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Here she is announcing her bill HR-2850, the “Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act.” Photo by Ellen Thomas, used with her permission.

By Cherrill Spencer and Ellen Thomas
Co-Chairs, DISARM/End Wars Issue Committee

May 2021

WILPF US was one of 70 peace-related organizations who co-sponsored a virtual event on April 24, 2021, to build political support within the US Congress for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Politicians all over the world are showing their desire for nuclear disarmament by signing the ICAN pledge (International Campaign Against Nuclear Weapons), part of which reads:

“As parliamentarians, we pledge to work for the signature and ratification of this landmark treaty by our respective countries, as we consider the abolition of nuclear weapons to be a global public good of the highest order and an essential step to promote the security and well-being of all peoples."

Please read the rest of this article to discover a quick way to write to your congressperson to request they sign the ICAN pledge and co-sponsor the new HR-2850 act to abolish US nuclear weapons. It won’t take much time but your calls and letters make a difference in moving these important issues forward!

What You Can Do to Build Support for the TPNW & HR-2850

The TPNW, also known as the “Nuclear Ban“ treaty, went into effect on January 22 of this year. Everything to do with nuclear weapons is now illegal in 54 countries, and that number will continue to rise. In countries where governments are not yet ready to sign this treaty, their elected officials are pressuring them to do so. For example, over 250 parliamentarians in Italy have signed the ICAN Pledge; nearly 200 in Germany; over 100 in Australia; and almost every member of the Scottish Parliament. So far, ten members of the US Congress have signed the ICAN Legislative Pledge. We must get more signatures to show the federal administration the will of the people through their elected representatives.

Here is the up-to-date list of US pledge signers at the federal, state and local levels. These 10 congressional signers are more likely to sponsor Eleanor Holmes-Norton’s newly introduced act the “Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act" (HR-2850), and those who co-sponsored Ms. Norton’s bill last session are most likely to sign the pledge. So if you are one of their constituents, please make sure you write them emails as described below. It’s also important to reach out to members of members of the Progressive Caucus.

To be inspired to contact your elected representatives about the ICAN pledge and HR-2850, please watch the recording of the April 24 event. During this video you will hear Beatrice Fihn, Executive Director of ICAN, three parliamentarians from Austria, Scotland and Belgium; Rep. Rashida Tlaib (MI 13th Congressional District), Rep. Jamie Raskin (MD 8th Congressional District) who’ve signed the pledge, and if you skip to the 32^nd minute, you will see Rep. Holmes Norton announcing she would be introducing her “Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act" (HR-2850) into the 117^th Congress on Monday, April 26 (which coincidentally was the 35^th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster).

WILPF US has been advocating for the Norton Act for some decades. You can find its text here plus a link to an online letter to congressional representatives asking them to co-sponsor this act. It has been referred to the House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services Committees, but will not get onto their agendas for discussion if it does not have at least 30 co-sponsors.

To be inspired to petition your town’s mayor to sign the ICAN pledge, skip to minute 46 in the recording of the April 24 event to hear Mayor Nicole LaChapelle of Easthampton, MA, speak about why she signed the pledge.

To find an easy tool for asking your representative to sign the ICAN pledge go to this website: www.nuclearban.us/nationalmap/ and type in your zip code in the little window at the top right corner of the USA map. The step-by-step instructions for how to navigate to your rep’s website and copy and paste the provided draft letter into their email system are given below the map. You can also watch this process at 1 hour and 36 minutes into the video recording of the 24^th April event.

It is best if you revise the draft letter somewhat. Information you can use to write those revisions are provided in the window you reach on the map. Please be sure to add your request that they sponsor HR-2850!

Please forward the link to this eNEWS article to your local friends and relatives and ask them to also write to their representatives. Congress members receive thousands of emails a week and they pay more attention when they see hundreds with the same request.

Your Bonus for Reading to the End of this eNEWS Article: GDAMS

In an April eNEWS article, "New Guides for Taking Action on Reducing US Military Budget",  you were informed about the Global Days of Action on Military Spending (GDAMS) between April 10 to May 17. Here is the April 26 GDAMS press release summarizing the latest data on global military spending and the demands of 170 civil society organizations, including several WILPF sections, that governments drastically reduce their military expenditure and make human security-oriented sectors, such as health and the environment, the priority of public policies and budgets.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) monitors developments in military expenditure worldwide and maintains the most comprehensive, consistent, and extensive publicly available data source on military expenditure. The annual update of the SIPRI Military Expenditure Database is now accessible at www.sipri.org .

While you are in the letter-writing mood please use the above information to write to your Congress members regarding cutting the US defense budget, as suggested in our Call For Peace resource guide #12, which you will find here.

Thank you for taking any or all of these steps to build support for the TPNW and the new Norton Act.