Spanish Commission for Justice and Peace welcomes another great step towards peace with 50 ratifications of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

• Justice and Peace calls for the Government of Spain to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) before its entry into force.

• From the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) we will continue the work for the TPNW to generate a peaceful behaviour among all States.

The Spanish Commission for Justice and Peace, as part of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons that works for the prohibition of nuclear weapons through an agreed UN Treaty, welcomes the 50th ratification of the TPNW on 24 October. This fact will allow its entry into force on 22 January 2021.

It is a great step towards peace, a historical moment that we feel part of, and one that we have worked hard to achieve over the last few years. It opens a new and hopeful page in history in which people say NO to nuclear weapons. We are grateful for the commitment of the countries that have already ratified the TPNW in the countdown to its entry into force.

Peace is an essential part of our faith and the Catholic Church has played a notable role in the Treaty. We recall that the Vatican already signed and ratified the TPNW in September 2017. The social teaching of the Church is categorical: «it is absurd to maintain that war is a means of redressing the right that has been violated»; it is an «adventure without return», which threatens the present and endangers the future of humanity: «Nothing is lost with peace; everything can be lost with war». Furthermore, Pope Francis has repeatedly stated: «it is necessary for all peoples to put down the weapons of war, and especially the most powerful and destructive ones: nuclear weapons», «that the use of atomic energy for purposes of war is today, more than ever, a crime not only against the dignity of human beings but against any possible future for our common home».

However, we are aware that there is still much to be done, it would be a milestone and we wish and call for Spain to join the Treaty, as it promised two years ago. In the letter written by Setsuko Thurlow (an atomic bomb survivor) to the Spanish president in August, she stated that «Each person who died had a name. Each person was loved by someone», she added «In our struggle for survival, rebuilding lives from the ashes, the survivors, or 'hibakusha', we convinced us that no human being should ever have to repeat our experience of the inhuman, immoral and cruel atomic bombing, and that our mission is to warn the world of the reality of nuclear dangers and to help people understanding the ultimate evil of nuclear weapons».