NEWS RELEASE

7 June 2012

Join New Zealand Red Cross and make nuclear weapons the target

New Zealand Red Cross is reigniting the debate for a ban on the use of nuclear weapons, educating a new generation on the issue and asking our government to continue to be a global leader.

Kicking off the campaign is an essay competition for tertiary students, which opens on 8 June.

It has been 25 years since New Zealand’s anti-nuclear policy which declares New Zealand and its territorial waters a nuclear-free zone was enshrined in law. The anti-nuclear debate has fizzled out in recent years, but the issue has not gone away with experts suggesting nuclear weapons are an even bigger threat today.

“The debate about nuclear weapons is ultimately about human beings,” New Zealand Red Cross Advocacy and Policy Manager Gabrielle Emery says.

“There are still at least 20,000 nuclear weapons in the world. They have a combined destructive force equivalent to approximately 150,000 Hiroshima bombs. Around 3,000 of them are maintained on launch-ready alert at all times.”

With $1,000 first prize up for grabs, the essay competition, run in conjunction with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), asks New Zealand tertiary students to write up to 2,000 words on ‘why do we need an international treaty to ban nuclear weapons’. Essays must demonstrate an understanding of international humanitarian law sometimes referred to as the laws of war, with entries closing on 27 July.

New Zealand Red Cross will run a number of creative and innovative web based and public events aimed at raising awareness with the general public and to ensure our government shows continued leadership in this area. Although a small country, we have shown that we can make a big difference on this global issue.

The Red Cross Movement has a unique association with the laws of war, and New Zealand Red Cross has a duty to draw attention to the truly horrific humanitarian consequences the world would face if a nuclear weapon was ever used.

In November last year at a meeting of all Red Cross and Red Crescent national societies, the Red Cross Movement championed international action on nuclear weapons, and found that their use contravenes international humanitarian law.

“Nuclear weapons wreak incalculable humanitarian and environmental suffering, the effects of which last generations,” Ms Emery says.

“The fact that nuclear weapons exist means that every day we live with the very real danger that they could be used again, whether accidentally or intentionally; it’s time for New Zealanders to reconnect with the cause, and time for a whole new generation to get involved."
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