From August 28-30 August, the International Youth Summit for Nuclear Abolition was held in Japan, bringing together 30 future leaders in nuclear disarmament. Participants from more than 20 countries gathered in Hiroshima, the city on which the first operational atomic bomb was dropped on 6 August, 1945.
In Hiroshima the participants met with hibakusha, survivors of the atomic bombing, and the mayor of Hiroshima, Mr Kazumi Matsui and visited the Hiroshima Memorial Peace Park. After a series of workshops and discussions about the indiscriminate and inhumane effects of nuclear weapons they have created a “Youth Pledge”: a pledge to realize the goal of a world of free of nuclear weapons. The Youth Pledge was presented to Ahmad Alhendawi, the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth by cochairs Rick Wayman of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF) and Anna Ikeda of SokaGakkai International (SGI) at the wider public forum on Sunday 30 August.
PAX supports all efforts to stigmatise, outlaw and eliminate nuclear weapons. Therefore we invite YOU to join the Generation of Change and sign the Youth Pledge for Nuclear Abolition:
Click here to read the full pledge and to add your name.
The International Youth Summit for Nuclear Abolition 2015 was coordinated by representatives of ICAN (International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons), MAC, NAPF, PAX, SGI and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). Cosponsors were the City of Hiroshima, the City of Nagasaki, Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation, PCU Nagasaki Council, Nagasaki Global Citizens’ Assembly for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, Mayors for Peace, ICAN, IPPNW, the Basel Peace Office, Global Zero and Ban All Nukes generation (BANg).
Media coverage:
International:
- ‘Envoy on Youth at the International Youth Summit for Nuclear Abolition’, UN Youth Envoy
- Video: Disarmament Talk with Ahmad Alhendawi, UN Youth Envoy
- ‘No more Nagasakis. No more Hiroshimas: Youth demands a Nuclear Free World! Voices of Youth,
- ‘Youth Activists from Around the World Meet in Hiroshima to Pledge Abolition of Nuclear Weapons’
PRN Newswire, - ‘Generation of Change pleads for walking the nuclear abolition talk’, IND-InDepth News
Japan:
- NHK news (28 August, 2015)
- Chugoku Shimbun news (29 Augustus, 2015)
- Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper (31 August, 2015)
- NHK news (31 August, 2015)
- 東方新報 & 東方時報, Chinese newspapers in Japan (10 September, 2015)