Below is some draft text you can send to your local council when asking them to endorse the ICAN Cities Appeal. We recommend personalising it and including why this issue is important to you, and why you have been inspired to get involved.

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Dear Councillors,

It has now been 80 years since nuclear weapons were first used, and the the world is still living under the shadow of the bomb. With rising global instability, the world is once again facing the very real risk of nuclear weapons being used.  Almost 14,000 nuclear weapons remain in our world, held by nine nations. All over the world cities are rejecting this threat, and calling for urgent action.

Nuclear weapons target cities and civilians. A single nuclear weapon can destroy a city and kill most of its people. Several nuclear explosions over modern cities would kill tens of millions of people. That is why I am writing to urge council to reject the risk of nuclear weapons by endorsing the Cities Appeal, an initiative of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). 

The Cities Appeal provides the opportunity for cities and towns to support Australia signing and ratifying the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and call on our leaders in federal parliament to pave the way for nuclear disarmament and join the Treaty without delay. 

Driven by grave concern for the devastating humanitarian impacts of any use of nuclear weapons, the treaty was negotiated in July 2017. It has now been joined by half the world’s nations and is the first treaty to comprehensively prohibit the use, production and stockpiling of nuclear weapons and set out a pathway for their total elimination.

In Australia, more than 50 councils have endorsed the Cities Appeal including Melbourne, Sydney, Hobart and Perth, and many councils in the regions. International endorsers of the Cities Appeal include Geneva, Washington DC, Manchester, Hiroshima Los Angeles and Paris and LA.

The Australian Red Cross, Australian Medical Association, the Australian Council of Trade Unions and dozens of civil society organisations have called on Australia to join the Treaty. More than 300 state and federal parliamentarians from across the political spectrum have pledged to work for Australia to sign and ratify the Treaty.

I hope that council will consider endorsing the Cities Appeal, by passing the motion below:

– Council / Shire

Kind regards,

What is the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons?

The TPNW, also known as the nuclear weapon ban treaty, was negotiated and adopted at the United Nations with the support of 122 nations in 2017. It is the first instrument of international law to clearly outlaw the development, possession, hosting, transfer, use and threat of use of nuclear weapons. The ban treaty is a crucial element in efforts to stigmatise and eliminate nuclear weapons.  The TPNW follows the path that is proving effective for biological and chemical weapons, landmines and cluster munitions. A treaty prohibiting and providing for the elimination of these weapons has been crucial, indeed no other approach has worked. Please check the front page of our website for the up-to-date number of signatories and states parties to the TPNW. While nuclear-armed states are yet to join the treaty, their support was not expected straight away. Like the treaties prohibiting other abhorrent weapons, the TPNW will work over time to strengthen the stigma against nuclear weapons, de-legitimising nuclear deterrence and the very possession of the weapon.

Why should Australia sign and ratify it?

Australia has joined the treaties prohibiting chemical and biological weapons, landmines and cluster munitions. Australia has already agreed to most of the provisions within the TPNW by joining the nuclear NonProliferation Treaty and the South Pacific Nuclear Weapon Free Zone, and has long claimed to support nuclear disarmament. The Australian public supports action on nuclear disarmament. Recent polling indicates 79% of the public want Australia to join the TPNW, with only 8% opposed (Ipsos, November 2018). Current Australian defence policy supports the threat and potential use of nuclear weapons by the United States on Australia’s behalf. Australia can end this policy while maintaining a strong military alliance with the US, as other nations have done. The supposed benefits of nuclear deterrence are ultimately unproven, yet nuclear weapons work to undermine international security and diplomacy. The ban treaty provides the best pathway forward to strengthen the norm against nuclear weapons and pursue their total elimination.

Why should councils in both urban and rural areas be involved?

Cities and towns are champions in challenging the world’s most urgent existential issues. As cities worldwide are nuclear targets, councils have a special responsibility to their constituents to speak out against these instruments of humanitarian harm. The support of cities and towns worldwide will contribute directly to the success of the TPNW. The effects of nuclear weapons do not stop at the city limits, and neither should positive efforts for change. With your participation, we can ensure that Australia gets on the right side of history by signing and ratifying the nuclear weapon ban treaty.

In instance of a nuclear war, the local mayor will be amongst first leaders expected to coordinate local responses and guide the community.

The list below, compiled by Mayors for Peace Fremantle, outlines just some of the corrdination efforts that would fall within council responsiblity following the immediate impacts of a nuclear detonation.

1. Remediating unsafe buildings still standing
2. Managing street and road debris
3. Ongoing collection of vast amounts of waste
4. Identifying safer places to meet and communicate with the community
5. Licensing temporary food outlets
6. Hygiene and local sewerage arrangements
7. Arrangements for triage, temporary hospitals on local parks
8. Local mass burials
9. Evacuations
10. Managing the loss of infrastructure such as traffic lights and telecommunications networks.
11. Council mental health
12. Enforcements of curfews
13. Managing food shortages and redistribution
14. Managing social unrest
15. Waste, sewerage, disease
16. Administering aspects of martial law