Humanitarian perspectives and the campaign for an international ban on nuclear weapons

The recent reorientation of the nuclear weapons debate towards a focus on their humanitarian consequences signifies a return to the origins of public opposition to these armaments. Nuclear weapons originally affronted the public conscience because their effects on people and the environment were seen as horrific and unacceptable. One of the key documents in the history of the movement to eliminate nuclear weapons, the 1955 Russell-Einstein Manifesto, made these concerns clear: “It is feared that if many H-bombs are used there will be universal death, sudden only for a minority, but for the majority a slow torture of disease and disintegration”.

Related Subject(s): Disarmament