International Meeting
2024 World Conference against A and H Bombs
Session 2
Maribel Hernandez
Alianza por el Desarme Nuclear/ Alliance for Nuclear Disarmament
Spain
Thank you very much for the invitation to be here today. It is an honor to share experiences, thoughts and action with all of you in such a remarkable city that holds special significance for all of us who came here representing the nuclear disarmament movement in different countries of the world.
Ten years ago, in 2014, I was writing for a Spanish national newspaper covering human rights issues when I learned that the Peace Boat was visiting Barcelona. I bought a train ticket and travelled 5 hours to write a story about it.
There I met Susumu Tsuboi, an 85-year-old hibakusha who, generously, shared his memories and paintings with me. At that time, I didn’t tell anyone, but Susumu was wearing a pair of sneakers that are produced in my hometown, Elche, in the south of the Valencia region. This was only an anecdotal fact but to me, it marked the beginning of a deep personal connection with the Hibakusha and their tirelessly work to achieve a nuclear weapon-free world.
Back then, I had no idea that behind the scenes, a powerful international campaign to achieve a Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was underway. Furthermore, I could hardly imagine that ten years later I would be standing here, on the 79th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, sharing with this audience how we work in Spain to urge our government to sign this treaty. Thank you Susumu for opening this door in my life.
We are living difficult times. It is not new that the world faces an unprecedented nuclear threat, the situation of highest tension since World War II. Just a few years ago the world’s nuclear leaders would agree and reaffirm that a nuclear war cannot be won and should never be fought. In less than three years, they have gone from rejecting nuclear war to preparing for it.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine brought nuclear weapons use and threats of use to the forefront of political debate and media headlines. It has become commonplace for Western political leaders to threat with the use of nuclear weapons as a means of coercion. We are witnessing a new golden age of nuclear deterrence.
The nuclear powers and their allies are doing their best to impose nuclear deterrence as a central element of their security strategies and geopolitical relations. In doing so, they have chosen to become entangled in a militaristic spiral, which, as a whole could lead us to the brink of irreversible disaster.
In 2023 alone, the nine nuclear states spent $91.4 billion on their nuclear arsenals, which amounts to $2,898 per second. What could be done with these sums of money? Probably, if civil society were asked, they would likely propose different uses rather than wasting it on weapons of mass destruction. Weapons that are allegedly built not to be used but to deter their use. Isn’t it senseless? It is more necessary than ever to delegitimize this model of military security and the systems of violence that it imposes.
Yes, we are facing challenging times but there is no room for a paralyzing pessimism. It is time to strengthen resistance and unite our voices and efforts to pursue alternatives. The existence of a Treaty that prohibits nuclear weapons and which in such a short time has garnered solid support (93 countries have signed it and 70 have ratified it) serves as a beacon of light.
The foundations upon which to build a new order are in place, and so are those who defend them. Here we stand. The organized action of civil society achieved what was once unthinkable: the adoption of the TPNW, overcoming the efforts of nuclear powers to thwart the negotiations. But the Treaty exists and is in force, providing us, nuclear disarmament activists, with a valuable tool to further our advocacy work against nuclear weapons. Moreover, its humanitarian approach has been an act of justice and acknowledgement of the pain, the suffering and the profound legacy that these weapons have left in the lives of people affected by them over generations: the Hibakusha and the victims of nuclear testing.
I come from Spain, a country that does not have, produce or host nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons are prohibited by law. But we also have our own nuclear history, we do know about how nuclear weapons radiation impacts on people’s health and environment.
In January 1966, 58 years ago, a nuclear accident changed the history of Palomares, a small rural town of Almeria, in Andalusian region, in the south of Spain. An American bomber collided with the mother plane that was supplying it with fuel. As a result of the collision, the four thermonuclear bombs it was carrying fell. Each bomb was 70 times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima. It was pure luck that they were not armed and there was no nuclear explosion. However, two of the bombs fell without parachutes and, because of the impact, dispersed their plutonium load contaminating Palomares.
The local population was neither evacuated nor informed of the danger of radioactivity, in the same way that the nuclear powers have treated indigenous populations of the place they chose to test their atomic bombs, such as the Marshal Islands, Nevada or the Australian aboriginal lands, among others. These peasants from southern Spain, ordinary people living far from the centres of international power, were also treated like expendable populations.
At that time, Spain was living under the dictatorship of Franco and the issue of the accident was shelved and the page was turned. People of Palomares have since experienced the nuclear stigma and are still waiting for the contaminated land to be fully cleaned up.
Ironically, Spanish government continues to turn its back on the TPNW and assumes NATO’s position on nuclear weapons. Being a member of NATO does not pose any legal impediment to signing the treaty. Furthermore, signing the TPNW is consistent with Spanish laws and the will of the Spanish population. According to polls, 89% of the population believes that our government should join the TPNW. We consider that by refusing to sign the Treaty, Spain is endorsing the idea that nuclear weapons are a legitimate means of ensuring international security. History shows us the opposite.
Therefore, last year, a group of social organizations, entities and NGOs in Spain decided to come together and unite our efforts and experiences to work for nuclear disarmament and campaign to urge the Spanish government to sign the TPNW.
Our Alliance for Nuclear Disarmament was officially launched in May 2023, one year ago. Currently, 63 organizations have joined the alliance and a steering group of 10 meets regularly to organize our strategy and actions. We are a grassroots movement, diverse, plural and open, working as a network in political advocacy and raising awareness.
Each organization brings its expertise and background to the campaign and the Alliance functions as the collective voice of this diversity: NGOs involved in human rights, peace education, environmental issues, faith-based organizations, academic research, antimilitarism, feminism, international cooperation, and more, all sharing the common goal of Spain signing the TPNW.
We know it is not easy. However, we also know that when ordinary people -your neighbor, your children’s teacher, anyone- learn about the humanitarian and environmental consequences of nuclear weapons they understand the inconsistency of a country like Spain, which claims international solidarity, refusing to sign a treaty that prohibits nuclear weapons. And, in the best-case scenario, they decide to join our Alliance and work towards this goal.
We have witnessed this action-reaction dynamic firsthand. This grassroots commitment has been essential in achieving a milestone. Last June, Spain reached the milestone of having 100 cities approve institutional motions in support of the TPNW and urging the Spanish government to sign it, including major cities like Barcelona, Sevilla, and Zaragoza.
We, as a civil society movement, are working from this grassroots level to raise awareness about the existence of nuclear weapons, to amplify the voices of hibakusha and nuclear survivors to people in our country, because action stems from knowledge.
As an alliance, we aim to be this bridge that translates knowledge into action. Nuclear weapons do not discriminate. They can affect everyone everywhere. Therefore, it is everyone’s responsibility, regardless of where they live, to do their best to eliminate this threat.
In Spain, we are striving to this goal, and we hope that this critical mass continues to grow until the point where those in the highest levels of politics, those who, let’s not forget, represent popular sovereignty in our democracies, can no longer ignore the voice of their people demanding a world free of nuclear weapons. Thank you very much.