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#NuclearBan

Ending Nuclear Tests, Abolishing Nuclear Weapons

Since 2009, when the UN General Assembly established 29 August as the International Day against Nuclear Tests, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) has used the occasion to highlight the catastrophic humanitarian and environmental consequences of nuclear weapons, and to call for their abolition.

Image credit: Public domain
Ray Acheson
29 August 2023

In 1945, the United States (US) government built and detonated the first nuclear weapon in the deserts of New Mexico. The fallout from that test spread to 46 US states, Canada, and Mexico. Three weeks later, the US government dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, killing hundreds of thousands of people and devastating both cities, and leaving a radioactive legacy for generations. Since then, more than 2000 nuclear “tests” have been conducted worldwide by nine nuclear-armed states, causing widespread cancers and other health tragedies, environmental contamination, and displacement.

The date for the International Day against Nuclear Tests was chosen to commemorate the closure of the Soviet Union’s Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site in Kazakhstan on 29 August 1991, where more than 450 tests were conducted. But the sites of nuclear weapon detonations are not the only sites of harm created by nuclear testing. All activities associated with nuclear weapons cause grave harm to people, animals, land, and water—from the mining of uranium to the processing of the fuel and building of the bomb, from the detonation of the weapon to the storage of radioactive waste. All these activities must end.

Nuclear violence


The word “test” does not sufficiently reflect the horror unleashed by the detonation of an atomic bomb.

Nuclear weapon “tests” are not hypothetical training exercises—they are very real explosions that release radioactive debris globally, scarring landscapes and poisoning plants, animals, oceans, rivers, and human beings.

The harm caused by nuclear weapon “tests” does not start with the bomb’s detonation. It begins when uranium, one of the most toxic substances on the planet, is wrenched from the Earth, transported across communities and countries, processed for bombs, deployed, and detonated.

The harm caused by nuclear weapon “tests” doesn’t end with the detonation, either. The radiation lingers in the bodies of humans and animals, to be passed down for generations. And the radioactive waste is stored haphazardly, sitting in barrels or domes for hundreds of thousands of years, leaking into oceans or groundwater.

Contemporary harms

The harms caused by nuclear weapon “tests” are not just remnants of history. Although aboveground explosive nuclear tests have not been conducted since the mid-1990s, the treaty prohibiting these tests has not yet entered into force because several nuclear-armed states have refused to ratify it. Many of these governments have indicated they stand ready to resume nuclear testing.

The nuclear-armed states are modernising their nuclear arsenals, building new types or components, spending billions of dollars a year to perpetuate their capacity to unleash massive nuclear violence at a moment’s notice. In the midst of rising nuclear threats and military confrontation among nuclear-armed states, the use of nuclear weapons is a horrifyingly real prospect.

Nuclear colonialism

All of these activities have a disproportionate impact on Indigenous Peoples around the world, contaminating their land and water and generating intergenerational health problems.

From the first nuclear weapon test in New Mexico, the harm caused by nuclear weapon “tests” has been colonial and racist. While films like the recently released Oppenheimer focus on the story of the white male scientist burdened with the tasks of creating nuclear weapons and shouldering the responsibility for their use, this is a myopic view of both the creation and the impact of the bomb.

The traditional story of the making of the bomb and that first nuclear test is a story of masculinity and of Western dominance. The spread and development of nuclear weapons since 1945 relies on these tropes to sustain the mythology and perceived political power of the bomb. The reality of these weapons, however, tells a different story.

The uranium used in the first atomic weapons came from Shinkolobwe in the (then-called) Belgian Congo, and from Port Radium, land of the Sahtu Dene First Nations on the shores of Great Bear Lake in so-called Canada. At both sites, local workers were forced to mine in unsafe communities, and the health of workers and communities were gravely impacted. Today, Indigenous Peoples and minorities work for low wages in dangerous places like uranium mines and nuclear fuel processing centres, which are often situated in low-income and/or on Indigenous lands.

Nuclear testing sites have likewise been intentionally situated away from the political and economic centres of nuclear-armed states, built instead upon colonised and occupied land of Indigenous and racialised people. “From the detonation of hundreds of nuclear bombs over vulnerable communities in the Pacific, to the disposal of hazardous radioactive waste on lands and territories of indigenous peoples, the legacy of nuclear testing is one of the cruellest examples of environmental injustice witnessed,” argued the UN Special Rapporteur on toxics, Baskut Tuncak, on the 75th anniversary of the world’s first nuclear weapon test.

From 1946 to 1958, for example, the US government detonated 67 nuclear bombs on the Marshall Islands. This created immediate and lasting harm, with suffering continuing to this day “with a legacy of contamination, illness and anguish wrought by these nuclear tests,” including due to the leaking radioactive dome where the United States stored the waste from the tests. Similarly, in so-called French Polynesia, the French government conducted over 200 nuclear “tests” from 1966 to 1996, subjecting inhabitants to devastating health and environmental damage that the French government has tried to conceal. 

The Indigenous Peoples of the United States continue to bear tremendous environmental health impacts of radioactive waste, such as the uranium waste heaped on the lands and territories of the Diné (Navajo) Nation. In Australia, the federal government has repeatedly sought to impose a radioactive waste dump on Indigenous lands, which Aboriginal communities have consistently (and successfully) opposed.

These are just a few of the countless examples of the colonial nature of nuclear weapon testing. These are not historical legacies; they are current realities.

Recommendations for action

All those working for de-colonisation, racial justice, ecological regeneration, social and economic justice, disarmament, and peace can take action to help end nuclear tests—and nuclear weapons. On this International Day against Nuclear Tests, you can:

·  Check out the resources below to learn more about the harmful impacts of nuclear weapon tests throughout history and today;

·  Use the Campaigners’ Action Kit from ICAN and the Abolitionist Viewing Guide from NYCAN to write letters to newspapers and talk to your friends about the new Oppenheimer film, providing facts about the real story about nuclear weapons;

·  Call on your government to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which prohibits all nuclear testing as well as the development, possession, and use of nuclear weapons, and all other related activities;

·  Urge your local city or town council to join the ICAN Cities Appeal in support of the TPNW;

·  Ask your parliamentarians, senators, or congressional representatives to sign the ICAN Parliamentary Pledge and work for nuclear disarmament;

·  Get involved in ICAN’s Don’t Bank on the Bomb initiative to remove your money from nuclear weapons and compel your bank, pension fund, or financial institution to stop funding nuclear weapon production;

·  Find out if the universities in your area are helping to build nuclear weapons and campaign to end those contracts;

·  Demand governments ensure that aboveground nuclear weapon testing is never resumed, end other forms of nuclear weapon testing, abolish uranium mining and nuclear weapon production, and not impose nuclear waste dumps on Indigenous Peoples; and

·  Call on nuclear-armed states to immediately cease their nuclear weapon modernisation programmes and redirect that money towards nuclear disarmament, decommissioning and clean-up of nuclear sites, and a just transition for workers to socially and ecologically safe industries, among other things.

Resources for more information

ICAN’s Interactive Tool on Nuclear Weapon Test Impacts

Trinity Nuclear Test’s Fallout Reached 46 States, Canada, and Mexico, Study Shows

Oppenheimer—And the Other Side of the Story

Moruroa Files: Investigation into French nuclear tests in the Pacific

Radioactivity Under the Sand: The Waste from French Nuclear Tests in Algeria

Black Mist: The impact of nuclear weapons on Australia

Anointed: Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner’s video poem about US nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands

Atomic Days: The Untold Story of the Most Toxic Place in America

Wasted: 2022 Global Nuclear Weapon Spending

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Ray Acheson

Ray Acheson is Director of Reaching Critical Will, WILPF’s disarmament programme. They are author of Abolishing State Violence: A World Beyond Bombs, Borders, and Cages and Banning the Bomb, Smashing the Patriarchy. They organise for abolition, disarmament, and demilitarisation in their work with various coalitions and provide intersectional feminist analysis and advocacy at international disarmament forums.

Matt Mahmoudi

Matt Mahmoudi (he/him) is a lecturer, researcher, and organizer. He’s been leading the “Ban the Scan” campaign, Amnesty International’s research and advocacy efforts on banning facial recognition technologies and exposing their uses against racialized communities, from New York City to the occupied Palestinian territories.

Berit Aasen

Europe Alternate Regional Representative

Berit Aasen is a sociologist by training and has worked at the OsloMet Metropolitan University on Oslo. She has 40 years of experience in research and consultancy in development studies, including women, peace, and security, and in later years in asylum and refugee studies. Berit Aasen joined WILPF Norway five years ago. She is an alternate member of the National Board of WILPF Norway, and representing WILPF Norway in the UN Association of Norway, the Norwegian 1325 network and the Norwegian Women’s Lobby. Berit Aasen has been active in the WILPF European Liaison group and is committed to strengthening WILPF sections and membership both in Europe and relations across continents.

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Melissa Torres

VICE-PRESIDENT

Prior to being elected Vice-President, Melissa Torres was the WILPF US International Board Member from 2015 to 2018. Melissa joined WILPF in 2011 when she was selected as a Delegate to the Commission on the Status of Women as part of the WILPF US’ Practicum in Advocacy Programme at the United Nations, which she later led. She holds a PhD in Social Work and is a professor and Global Health Scholar at Baylor College of Medicine and research lead at BCM Anti-Human Trafficking Program. Of Mexican descent and a native of the US/Mexico border, Melissa is mostly concerned with the protection of displaced Latinxs in the Americas. Her work includes training, research, and service provision with the American Red Cross, the National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Centre, and refugee resettlement programs in the U.S. Some of her goals as Vice-President are to highlight intersectionality and increase diversity by fostering inclusive spaces for mentorship and leadership. She also contributes to WILPF’s emerging work on the topic of displacement and migration.

Jamila Afghani

VICE-PRESIDENT

Jamila Afghani is the President of WILPF Afghanistan which she started in 2015. She is also an active member and founder of several organisations including the Noor Educational and Capacity Development Organisation (NECDO). Elected in 2018 as South Asia Regional Representative to WILPF’s International Board, WILPF benefits from Jamila’s work experience in education, migration, gender, including gender-based violence and democratic governance in post-conflict and transitional countries.

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Sylvie Jacqueline Ndongmo

PRESIDENT

Sylvie Jacqueline NDONGMO is a human rights and peace leader with over 27 years experience including ten within WILPF. She has a multi-disciplinary background with a track record of multiple socio-economic development projects implemented to improve policies, practices and peace-oriented actions. Sylvie is the founder of WILPF Cameroon and was the Section’s president until 2022. She co-coordinated the African Working Group before her election as Africa Representative to WILPF’s International Board in 2018. A teacher by profession and an African Union Trainer in peace support operations, Sylvie has extensive experience advocating for the political and social rights of women in Africa and worldwide.

WILPF Afghanistan

In response to the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban and its targeted attacks on civil society members, WILPF Afghanistan issued several statements calling on the international community to stand in solidarity with Afghan people and ensure that their rights be upheld, including access to aid. The Section also published 100 Untold Stories of War and Peace, a compilation of true stories that highlight the effects of war and militarisation on the region. 

IPB Congress Barcelona

WILPF Germany (+Young WILPF network), WILPF Spain and MENA Regional Representative

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Demilitarisation

WILPF uses feminist analysis to argue that militarisation is a counter-productive and ill-conceived response to establishing security in the world. The more society becomes militarised, the more violence and injustice are likely to grow locally and worldwide.

Sixteen states are believed to have supplied weapons to Afghanistan from 2001 to 2020 with the US supplying 74 % of weapons, followed by Russia. Much of this equipment was left behind by the US military and is being used to inflate Taliban’s arsenal. WILPF is calling for better oversight on arms movement, for compensating affected Afghan people and for an end to all militarised systems.

Militarised masculinity

Mobilising men and boys around feminist peace has been one way of deconstructing and redefining masculinities. WILPF shares a feminist analysis on the links between militarism, masculinities, peace and security. We explore opportunities for strengthening activists’ action to build equal partnerships among women and men for gender equality.

WILPF has been working on challenging the prevailing notion of masculinity based on men’s physical and social superiority to, and dominance of, women in Afghanistan. It recognizes that these notions are not representative of all Afghan men, contrary to the publicly prevailing notion.

Feminist peace​

In WILPF’s view, any process towards establishing peace that has not been partly designed by women remains deficient. Beyond bringing perspectives that encapsulate the views of half of the society and unlike the men only designed processes, women’s true and meaningful participation allows the situation to improve.

In Afghanistan, WILPF has been demanding that women occupy the front seats at the negotiating tables. The experience of the past 20 has shown that women’s presence produces more sustainable solutions when they are empowered and enabled to play a role.