The Third Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons – UN 2025

March 3-7, 2025

Nuclear disarmament is a hotly debated topic even 80 years after the first atomic bombs were dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  To address these issues, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) was created in 2017 to supplement the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty.  TPNW is a treaty that bans the use, possession, testing and transfer of nuclear weapons and is intended to help achieve nuclear disarmament.  73 countries so far have ratified the treaty.

The third Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was held from 3 to 7 March 2025 at United Nations Headquarters in New York.  Global leaders, NGOs and civil society activists traveled to the United Nations to listen and to also have their voices heard for a world free of nuclear weapons.

Representatives from May Peace Prevail On Earth International, The Global Silent Minute, and URI Voices for a World free of Nuclear Weapons met at the United Nations to attend, in particular, one of the side events focused on Healing Generational Atomic Trauma. Among the eight featured speakers, our good friends Kathleen and Sarah Burkinshaw, second and third generation Hibakusha (atomic bomb Hiroshima survivors) shared their stories and experiences which have defined their life’s work to bring awareness to the plight of survivors worldwide.  Other speakers included daughters and sons of veterans from the UK and the US who were part of the multiple atomic testings and experiments that took place in the South Pacific and other nuclear Laboratories around the world.  The scars and suffering, both traumatic as well as physical, caused by nuclear radiation, is a scourge which affects not only the first generation survivors but is passed down through the family line for generations.  

We were grateful to attend TPNW meetings in support of nuclear disarmament and also to be with our dear friends Kathleen and Sarah Burkinshaw whose mother, Toshiko, lived through that fateful day on August 6th, 1945 in Hiroshima.  

May Peace Prevail On Earth