3 young members of Zenkyo joined in the Gensuikyo delegation to New York, on the occasion of the UN Conference to negotiate a treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons, from June 15 to 20. They observed the Conference, collecting petitions on the streets in Manhattan, joined in the Women’s March, as well as participated in the Youth Exchange Meeting. It was great opportunity for participants to touch upon the current of the international community and its growing public opinion for the treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons.

The world and youth is moving toward the abolition of nuclear weapons

A young teacher Osaka said “In the exchange with young people in New York, we exchanged respective activities and commitment to peace. The world and youth is greatly moving towards the abolition of nuclear weapons. By knowing better the world current, I want to have a strong commitment to appeal to the people around us and the Japanese government”.

 Fun to collect signatures! I want to do more!

A young man was part of the delegation said, “I was very happy when the local people carefully read the petition and signed. I had been not good at collecting petitions, but it I found it was fun, and wasted to do more.”

In New York, Hibakusha and representatives of civil society submitted the appeal from Hibakusha to the president of the Conference, Ambassador Ellen White, which accounts for 2.96 million petitions.

The treaty is adopted!

With the growing public opinion and strong campaign for abolition of nuclear weapons, the treaty was adopted in the UN Conference on July 7^th with votes of 122 nations. The Conference acknowledged long endurance of Hibakusha and highly evaluated the role of civil society in the campaign against nuclear weapons since the tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, including Japanese movement. 2.96 million petitions are one of them. It is important for Japanese movement to demand the government sign and ratify the treaty by waging public opinion by collecting “Hibakusha appeal” petition.