Basel Peace Office commemorates Human Rights Day (December 10) by calling for the global respect of human rights through full implemetation of obligations under the human rights treaties. In particular, we highlight the human right to peace and the obligations under human rights law to prevent nuclear war and achieve a nuclear-weapon-free world.
We commend Hidankyo, the Japanese organization of survivors of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, who receive the Nobel Peace Prize on December 10 for their work to uphold the right to be free from the threat of nuclear war.
We join Abolition 2000 in their letter commending Hidankyo "for their tireless determination over decades to lead the world away from the nuclear abyss" and which highlights the affirmation by the UN Human Rights Committee in 2018 that "The threat or use of …. nuclear weapons, which are indiscriminate in effect and are of a nature to cause destruction of human life on a catastrophic scale is incompatible with respect for the right to life and may amount to a crime under international law.” (See UN Human Rights Committee concludes that the threat or use of nuclear weapons violates the Right to Life).
And we highlight the statement Right to life without Threat of Nuclear Weapons, submitted to the UN Human Rights Council by Kazakhstan on behalf of themselves, Austria, Egypt, Nigeria, Panama and 34 other cosponsoring countries, which highlights the UN Human Human Rights Committee conclusion on nuclear weapons and the Right to Life, and calls on all States to "restrengthen the nuclear taboo, foster dialogue and confidence-building measures and achieve nuclear disarmament with urgency and determination in line with the collective commitments outlined in the very first United Nations General Assembly resolution as well as obligations under Article 6 of the Non-Proliferation Treaty and other relevant treaties."
The Kazakhstan-led statement to the Human Rights Council was drafted and supported following work that Basel Peace Office has been doing in Geneva on Nuclear Weapons and the Right to Life, including a ground-breaking event we organised with Kazakhstan in the Palais de Nations on August 29, 2023, attended by ambassadors and other representatives of nuclear-armed, nuclear0allied and non-nuclear States. Speakers at the event included the Director-General of the UN in Geneva, the Kazakhstan Ambassador to the UN, high-level representatives from the UN Human Rights Council and the Director of Basel Peace Office.