International Mobilization Day against Nuclear War is celebrated around the world on the anniversary of the Delhi Declaration, the main goal of which is to call for an end to the nuclear arms race, the reduction and subsequent gradual elimination of the world's nuclear arsenals and the elimination of the very threat of nuclear war.
The Delhi Declaration was adopted on January 29, 1985 in the Indian capital New Delhi at a meeting of heads of state and government of several – countries India, Greece, Mexico, Argentina, Tanzania and Sweden, which became the first countries to sign this document. It is from the moment of adoption of this declaration on the principles of a nuclear-weapon-free and non-violent world that today’s holiday dates back.
It must be recalled that the consequences of nuclear explosions, both for an individual country and for the entire planet, are catastrophic. After all, even today the possibilities of protection against them are very limited, and those who find themselves at the epicenter of the explosion cannot be saved at all. Radiation will cause irreparable damage to both nature and human life and health. All this can lead to fires and epidemics, hunger and looting... Increased doses of radiation lead to an increase in cancer in people, pathologies in newborns, and genetic mutations. And as a result of a large-scale nuclear war, a climate catastrophe will occur, and it is difficult to even imagine that any human community will survive anywhere on Earth.
Currently, many countries around the world are armed with nuclear weapons, but their use is prohibited. This is due to the sad events of 1945, when two bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which claimed many lives, and the consequences of these events are still reflected. And although nuclear weapons were then used in military operations for the first and last time in world history, all subsequent decades international diplomacy and the military strategy of states were strongly influenced by the plans being developed to wage a possible nuclear war. And the creation of new types of nuclear weapons leaves the issue of the nuclear threat for many states one of the pressing topics of international diplomacy today.
Genbaku Dome in Hiroshima – memory of the terrible tragedy (Photo: Jaruek Chairak, licensed from Shutterstock.com)
The two major world powers – USSR and USA – agreed back in 1953 on a moratorium on nuclear weapons tests in the atmosphere. However, the Soviet Union began testing again in 1961, and a year later the United States. Then, in 1963, the UN Disarmament Commission prepared a treaty banning nuclear tests in the atmosphere, outer space and under water, which was signed by more than 100 UN member states, including the USSR and the USA.
In 1968, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (also prepared by the UN Disarmament Commission) was also opened for signing, which prohibits all countries except the five nuclear powers (Russia, the USA, Great Britain, China and France) from owning nuclear weapons. By the mid-1990s, all five nuclear powers had ratified it, and a total of 181 states had signed it. Almost all independent states of the world are parties to the treaty, with the exception of Israel, India, Pakistan, North Korea and South Sudan. In 1995, this agreement was extended indefinitely.
But it is also worth noting that today the non-proliferation regime is actually on the verge of collapse. Nuclear powers are increasingly being reproached for failure to fulfill disarmament obligations. For example, the United States has withdrawn from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and continues to develop nuclear weapons. The three nuclear countries – India, Pakistan and Israel – have not signed a non-proliferation treaty, and the «third world countries» are causing more and more concern in the international community, especially since the possibility of purchasing nuclear weapons cannot be completely ruled out.