Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference: Sign a Petition Calling on President Obama to Take Action

"I state with conviction America's commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons." ~President Obama, Prague Nuclear Security Speech, April 2009

The existence of nuclear weapons remains the greatest threat to life on earth.  Sign the petition and call on President Obama to make good on the commitment he declared in Prague one year ago.  Call on President Obama to initiate talks on an international agreement to eliminate nuclear weapons. Call on President Obama to work with international leaders to abolish nuclear weapons – within our lifetimes.

You can be a part of the over 5 million signatures that will be delivered to the White House and the United Nations in early May to coincide with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference in New York.  Click here to Sign the Petition Now.

In 1970, the NPT was created to halt the spread of nuclear weapons. But it is unequipped to deal with 21st century challenges, and the NPT alone cannot bring about a world free of nuclear weapons. The 8th Review Conference of the NPT (May 3-28, 2010) provides a key forum to initiate good faith talks on disarmament, and it is an opportunity for President Obama to publicly restate his commitment to work toward a world free of nuclear weapons.

Nuclear weapons must be eliminated to ensure a safer future for generations to come. Unite with more than five million voices and urge President Obama to begin multilateral talks on an international agreement to abolish nuclear weapons.

More on the 2010 NPT Review Conference:

As the only binding multilateral treaty that mentions disarmament, the NPT sets up a grand bargain. It says that nuclear weapons states will ultimately disavow these weapons in exchange for an agreement from non-nuclear states to stay clear of developing nuclear weapons capabilities.

Since 1970, several states have dismantled as a result of the Treaty: Belarus, Kazahkstan, South Africa. And Argentina, Brazil, Libya and Sweden were all dissuaded from pursuing their nuclear aspirations. But India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea have all become nuclear weapons-states, and many non-nuclear weapons states have argued that the states outside the Treaty are receiving the most benefits.

Now forty years have gone by since the Treaty's establishment, and the Non-Aligned Movement (with 118 member countries mostly in the developing world) is pushing the disarmament agenda seriously. It wants to see the five nuclear powers completely fulfill their disarmament obligations under the NPT. Some states in the NAM already have declared that they will oppose U.S.-supported measures, such as stronger nuclear energy inspections and punishment for countries that withdraw from the NPT.  These same states want the major powers' nuclear programs to be subject to UN inspections as well as a timeline for disarmament.

Review conferences for the NPT are held in five-year intervals, and last conference in 2005 was deemed a failure when its efforts to produce a final document were botched. This makes the outcome of the 2010 Review Conference absolutely critical. Still, there are many challenges ahead that must be addressed to prevent this conference from going the way of the 2005 meeting.

Because the final conference document must be a consensus piece, any country can use the veto at its disposal. For the Obama administration to sustain the momentum on nuclear security coming off the tail winds of the April Security Summit and the signing of the New START agreement with Russia, the issue of disarmament must remain on the table. The demands of the NAM must be taken seriously otherwise the meeting may be compromised as the 2005 Review Conference was. How the U.S. delegation maneuvers its position and considers the issue of disarmament during the month of May will certainly affect the impact of the Review conference's outcome.

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