The Philippine Red Cross (PRC) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Thursday underscored the need to ratify the nuclear weapon ban treaty.
In a joint statement signed by PRC Chairman and CEO Senator Richard Gordon and ICRC Philippines Head of Delegation Boris Michel on the 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki blasts, the organizations stressed the importance of ratifying the landmark Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) noting "The use of even a fraction of these weapons would cause long-term and irreversible effects on human health, the environment, the climate and food-production — that is, everything that life depends on — threatening future generations and the very survival of humanity."
In 2017, 122 States including the Philippines adopted the said treaty in response to evidence of immense suffering resulting from the use of nuclear weapons.
The TPNW includes a “comprehensive set of prohibitions on participating in any nuclear weapons activities, including developing, testing, producing, using or threatening to use them.”
To date, the said treaty needs an additional 10 ratifications to enter into force.
Seventy-five years ago, on August 6, 1945, the city of Hiroshima in Japan witnessed an entirely new type of weapon which vaporized all living things - including its 340,000 inhabitants.
Three days after, the same weapon was used to kill and injure 60 percent of the population of another Japanese city, Nagasaki.
Years after the twin bombing - despite the best efforts of the ICRC and the Japanese Red Cross Society to assist the victims - thousands of people continued to die.
The explosion’s long-lasting effects remain visible to this day.
Due to the devastation caused by the atomic bombings, the international community has taken decisive action to prohibit and eliminate weapons that have unacceptable humanitarian consequences.
The ICRC and the wider Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement advocated that nuclear weapons “must never be used again and prohibited under international law.”
In the Philippines, the Senate - through the efforts of Gordon - adopted Senate Resolution No. 47 in 2017 to express full support to the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement’s call to ban and eliminate nuclear weapons.
PRC and ICRC noted the need for such a treaty to be ratified because there are still “nearly 14,000 nuclear weapons in the world ready to be launched at a moment’s notice.”
The organizations pointed out that “any use of nuclear weapons would generate colossal humanitarian needs that no government or international organization has the capacity to respond to.”
By signing the treaty in 2017, PRC and ICRC noted that the Philippines became one of the flag bearers for this important convention.
“There is little doubt that adherence to the TPNW will help protect future generations and be a turning point in our efforts to end the era of nuclear weapons the Philippines can play a leading role in achieving this goal,” they added.