The whole world is dealing with the Covid-19 virus at the moment. People have to stay at home and events, such as the Olympic Games, are postponed or canceled. On the 25th of March it was announced that the Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) will be postponed.
The NPT Review Conference is takes place every five years and was planned this year for the United Nation in New York from 27 April until 22 May. The President-elect of this Review Conference, Gustavo Zlauvinen from Argentina, informed the delegates that the conference will be held ‘as soon as the circumstances permit, but no later than April 2021’. Dutch Members of Parliament were also planning to attend the conference as a parliamentary delegation. Hopefully this delegation will also be able to attend the conference at a later moment.
Fortunately, not everything is postponed at the moment. Namibia ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on 20 March. It became the 36 state to ratify the Treaty. The treaty needs only 14 more ratifications to enter into force. Furthermore, on August 6 and August 9 it will be 75 years ago that the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. PAX will continue to prepare for these commemorations by organizing actions with people all around the Netherlands.