International Day against Nuclear Tests: 29 August via United Nations

On 2 December 2009, the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly declared 29 August the International Day against Nuclear Tests by unanimously adopting resolution 64/35

The Day is meant to galvanize the United Nations, Member States, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, academic institutions, youth networks and the media to inform, educate and advocate about the necessity of banning nuclear tests as a valuable step towards achieving a safer world. The Preamble of the resolution emphasizes that “every effort should be made to end nuclear tests in order to avert devastating and harmful effects on the lives and health of people” and that “the end of nuclear tests is one of the key means of achieving the goal of a nuclear-weapon-free world.”

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has stated with great clarity: “A world free of nuclear weapons would be a global public good of the highest order.” In May of 2010, all the States Parties to the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, committed themselves to work to “achieve the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons” and they characterized achieving a ban on nuclear testing as “vital.”

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