NEWS

On 8 and 9 December States will meet in Vienna to discuss the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons.
This conference, like those held in Nayarit, Mexico earlier this year and in Oslo, Norway in 2013, will explore the horrific effects of a nuclear detonation and related issues at what is a pivotal time in the debate over nuclear weapons. Ultimately, the good intentions behind these conferences must translate into the political will needed to advance nuclear disarmament and create a world free of these abhorrent weapons.
Inter-governmental discussions on nuclear weapons, including those in the Oslo, Nayarit and Vienna conferences, have been shifting away from narrow military and security interests and focussing on the fact that any use of these weapons would have devastating humanitarian consequences. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement has long advocated for a debate on nuclear weapons shaped by a full grasp of the short-, medium- and long-term consequences of their use on people and on the environment. In light of the evidence, it is difficult to imagine that anyone could seriously doubt how catastrophic those consequences would be.

The concern of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement about nuclear weapons arose in the immediate aftermath of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In an instant, many thousands of people were dead and many more were suffering horrific injuries. Hospitals and health centres, the places where the injured would turn to for treatment, were completely destroyed and much of these cities were incinerated and little but ruins left.

But one hospital did survive. Despite its closeness to the blast epicentre, the Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital miraculously escaped complete destruction and began to fill with casualties. Thousands received treatment there, despite the fact that equipment and medicine had been destroyed or was unusable, and many doctors and nurses were themselves killed or injured. Dr Marcel Junod of the International Committee of the Red Cross became the first foreign doctor to reach Hiroshima and coordinate assistance. His reports provide a chilling account of what a nuclear detonation does to people and their communities.

The destructive power of these weapons has grown massively since 1945. Today, the casualties and damage in the immediate aftermath of a nuclear explosion would be so extensive that an effective humanitarian response is unrealistic. Infrastructure would be decimated. First responders in the vicinity would likely be victims of the bomb themselves, and the health effects of radiation would largely rule out sending responders into the contaminated area. No state, much less a humanitarian organization, is able to draw up a plan to cope with such a scenario. This is one disaster neither the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, nor anyone else can prepare for.

These realities are why we must do all we can to ensure that nuclear weapons are never used again. In 1948, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement called for atomic weapons to be banned and we have reiterated that call many times since. In 2011 we appealed to States to pursue with urgency and determination negotiations to prohibit the use of and completely eliminate nuclear weapons based on existing commitments and international obligations. We made this appeal grounded on our deep concern ‘about the destructive power of nuclear weapons, the unspeakable human suffering they cause, the difficulty of controlling their effects in space and time, the threat they pose to the environment and to future generations and the risks of escalation they create’.

70 years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that call remains just as urgent. Humanity has been fortunate that nuclear weapons have not been used since those tragic days in August 1945. Next week’s discussions in Vienna are to be welcomed and we earnestly hope they will feed the reflections of States as they consider how to advance nuclear disarmament in the 21st century.