Give Peace a Chance! United towards Peace, Ecology and Climate

19 June 2022
-
19 June 2022
19 June 2022 - 19 June 2022
Vienna/online
WILHELMINE MOIK HALL | ÖGB CATAMARAN
1020 VIENNA | JOHANN-BÖHM-PLATZ 1

Conference
Give Peace a Chance! United towards Peace, Ecology and Climate — Abolish Nuclear Weapons!
In this accompanying peace event to the 1st UN Conference of the Partner States of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, all the aspects listed here will be examined in more details and ways to a peaceful sustainable development are identified.
Give Peace a Chance! sang John Lennon and Yoko Ono more than 50 years ago. Today this call for peace is more urgent than ever. The climate and environmental crisis, increasing inequality, the intensified global military and armed drone operations, the militarization of the EU, and the multiple regional wars require one joint effort of peace, environmental, and climate movements for peace and the renunciation of violence and to save our planet. The entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in January 2021 is a beacon of hope for all people in actual conflicts and crises.

Disarmament and arms conversion are essential elements of the necessary transformation into one eco-social, fit for the future development of society. Only if we succeed in transferring the massive funds for the military and armaments – $5 billion are wasted on this worldwide every day – to education, health, technological transformation, and social balance is a future worth living for humans and nature possible. Most important is the definitive ban on nuclear weapons.
Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW)
The UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons heralded a paradigm shift in thinking about security. The TPNW came into force on January 22, 2021 and prohibits the development, testing, production, owning, and deployment of nuclear weapons and the threat of these. In contrast to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), where the participating “nuclear powers“ have blocked each other for more than a decade with nothing happening towards the disarmament and destruction of the 13,400 nuclear warheads worldwide, the TPNW is based on a democratic development process. It thus opens a door to a possible nuclear weapons-free future. UN Secretary-General António Guterres welcomed the entry into force of the agreement. The first multilateral nuclear disarmament treaty in more than two decades is “an important step towards a world without nuclear weapons and a strong demonstration of support for a multilateral approach to nuclear disarmament”.
Sunday, 19 June
5 to 10pm
Wilhelmine Moik Halle, ÖGB Catamaran
Johann-Böhm-Platz 1, 1020 Vienna
and online
via Zoom and livestream
Languages: English, German
Two professional translators from WILPF (Women‘s International League for Peace and Freedom) will provide simultaneous translation: Helena Nyberg, WILPF Switzerland, and Michaela Leithner, WILPF Austria
Organisation & sponsoring: International Peace Bureau (IPB), Aktionsbündnis für Frieden, aktive Neutralität und Gewaltfreiheit (AbFaNG), Women's International League for Peace & Freedem Austria (WILPF)
supported by International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) Austria, ITUC CSI IGB, Attac, transform! europe, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) Austria, Forum Wissenschaft und Umwelt (fwu), Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB), Union of International Associations (UIA)

Programme

5:00 pm Opening of the exhibition and welcome

Moderator: Katerina Anastasiou (Austria), transform! europe, AbFaNG

Accompanying Exhibition by peace and environmental organisations

6:30 pm Lectures

The Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty: Opportunities and Next Step

Rebecca Johnson (UK), Peace activist, co-founder of ICAN (International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons), Director and Founderof the Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy

Nuclear weapons and health, viewed globally – Prevention of medical and humanitarian dangers

Klaus Renoldner (Austria), physician, President of IPPNW (International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War) Austria

Fighting for Peace in the Global South

Vanessa Griffin (Fidji Islands), Pacific ICAN activist, coordinator of APDC (Asia Pacific Development Centre)

Peace, Security and Climate & Environmental Crisis

Michael Müller (Germany), Federal Chairman of the Friends of Nature in Germany, retired State Secretary

The international trade union movement and peace

Philip Jennings (UK), former General Secretary of UNI Global Union, Co-President of the IPB (International Peace Bureau)

8:00 pm Panel Discussion: Cooperation of peace and environmental movements – Way to an eco-social society?

Representative of the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs (BMEIA)
Helga Kromp-Kolb, environmental meteorologist, fwu
Phill Gittins, Education Director WBW (World beyond War)
Sharan Burrow, ITUC General Secretary
Alessandro Capuzzo, Trieste Non-Nuclear Movement
Heinz Gärtner, political scientist, OIIP (Austrian Institute for International Affairs)

9:00 pm Open discussion

9:30 pm buffet (end of event 10:00 pm)

Voices for Peace from Ukraine and Russia

Video message from Yurii Sheliazhenko (Ukraine), Executiv Secretary, Ukrainian Pacifist Movement, and Oleg Bodrov (Russia), ecologist, chairman of the Public Council of the Southern Shore of the Gulf of Finland

After the opening and the lectures, peace songs will be performed by Reinhart Sellner and Timo Brunnbauer.

Agenda is subject to change without notice