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Editor’s note: This file is mirrored from its source at: http://ccnr.org/declaration_WSF_e_2016.pdf with hypertext extensions. Additional content: from the 11-28-16 version of List of Endorsers: Endorsers Organizations, Endorsers Selected Comments, and Ongoing News and Developments
Montreal Declaration for
a Nuclear-Fission-Free World
Morihiro Hosokawa  Kick The Habit by Opland, aka Rob Wout, 1981

As citizens of this planet inspired by the Second Thematic World Social Forum for a Nuclear-Fission-Free World, conducted in Montreal from August 8 to August 12, 2016, we are collectively calling for a mobilization of civil society around the world to bring about the elimination of all nuclear weapons, to put an end to the continued mass-production of all high-level nuclear wastes by phasing out all nuclear reactors, and to bring to a halt all uranium mining worldwide.

This call goes out to fellow citizens of all countries worldwide who see the need, whether as an individual or as a member of an organization, for a nuclear-fission-free world. We are committed to building a global network of citizens of the world who will work together, using the internet and social media to overcome isolation, to provide mutual support and to coordinate the launching of joint actions for a world free of nuclear fission technology, whether civilian or military.

We will begin by creating communication channels to share information and educational tools on legal, technical, financial, medical, and security-related matters linked to military and non-military nuclear activities. We will pool our resources across national boundaries in a spirit of cooperation, allowing us to contribute to the formulation of a convergent and unified response to counteract the plans of the nuclear establishment that operates on a global scale to multiply civil and military nuclear installations worldwide and to dump, bury and abandon nuclear wastes.

We recognize each nuclear weapon as an instrument of brutal and unsurpassed terror, designed to kill millions of innocent men, women and children at a single stroke. We realize that even a limited nuclear war can provoke sudden extreme climate change on a global scale, crippling agricultural production and threatening the survival of all higher forms of life. We are grimly aware that a nuclear-armed world will surely destroy itself and set in motion a process that will undo four billion years of evolution. We are determined to help guide the world away from the brink of nuclear annihilation.

To endorse the declaration send name, location, and e-mail address to <ccnr@web.ca>

We recognize each nuclear reactor as a repository of the most pernicious industrial waste ever known; waste so radioactive that it spontaneously melts down if not continually cooled; waste that, when targeted by terrorists or saboteurs, or by conventional warfare, will render large portions of the earth uninhabitable for centuries; waste that contains material that can be used as a nuclear explosive at any time in the future, for thousands of years to come.

We recognize uranium as the key element behind all nuclear weapons and all nuclear reactors, and we endorse the call by the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and by the 2015 Quebec World Uranium Symposium for a total global ban on the mining and processing of uranium.

We will use our networks

  • to pressure governments everywhere to put an end to nuclear fission technology;
  • to expose the dangers associated with the export and transport of nuclear materials and nuclear waste;
  • to puncture the myths used to prop up and justify our irrational nuclear addiction;
  • to tell the sobering stories of nuclear victims and nuclear refugees;
  • to emphasize our moral responsibilities not to burden future generations with a poisonous nuclear legacy;
  • to warn governments without nuclear facilities to realize the dangers and avoid becoming enmeshed in this technology;
  • to disseminate the findings of engineers, doctors, biologists, ecologists, physicists and concerned citizens having special knowledge and appreciation of nuclear dangers;
  • to promote and popularize the wide variety of renewable energy alternatives that are green and sustainable;
  • to launch lawsuits and to support whistle-blowers to halt the most egregious examples of nuclear malfeasance;
  • to promote non-violent conflict resolution, and
  • to denounce the illegal, immoral, and insane obsession with nuclear weapons arsenals.

We invite all people, groups and organizations involved in the effort for a world without nuclear fission and uranium mining, to commit themselves to this effort. We also ask them to endorse this declaration and to transmit it widely in their networks.

This declaration is partly inspired by the Tokyo Appeal issued by the First Thematic World Social Forum for a Nuclear-Free World held in Tokyo and Fukushima in March 2016.

List of endorsers: http://ccnr.org/declaration_endorsers.pdf

To endorse the declaration send name, location, and e-mail address to <ccnr@web.ca>.

ENDORSERS OF THE MONTREAL DECLARATION
ENDOSSEURSDE LA DÉCLARATION DEMONTRÉAL ORGANIZATIONS / ORGANISMES
ORGANIZATIONS / ORGANISMES
Selected comments by endorsers of the Montreal Declaration
Quelques commentaires par les endosseurs de la declaration
  • The Movement Against the Nuclear Threat is based in the city of La Paz, but interacts with different groups in other regions of Bolivia. We believe that our movement is unique and the strongest group in Bolivia, which has already had significant achievements in raising awareness of the nuclear problem in Bolivia so as to push back the initial plans of the government in the nuclear field. In the group we are trying to work more organically, and we have no official representatives. Our concerns are about the almost imminent incursion of our country on implementation of nuclear technology for power generation, mining of radioactive elements under a non-transparent information process, in an alliance (with character of state top secret file) between the Bolivian government and the Russian federation, through the RosAtom Corporation and its subsidiaries. We believe that this aggressive policy is not by chance and we must find spaces to share our experiences and achieve a global coalition for future generations and mother earth. Fabrizio Uscamayta
  • Nous la signons. «Echo-Echanges ONG France-Japon» est le nom de notre association qui a été une des locomotives pour réaliser le premier Forum Social Thématique à Tokyo [en mars 2016] et j’ai été un des facilitateurs. Kolin Kobayashi, Paris.
  • I have done many hours of research on the uses of nuclear energy and feel we are already beyond the point where anything can be done to stop the harm done to nature and life itself. People just don’t realize that it’s the particulates, and the radiation from these minute atomic particles, that pose the greatest threat. I am fully in support of a nuclear fission and fusion free world. I hope it’s not too late. Brian Bower
  • To avoid the final apocalyptic scene of lovers clutching one another in a nuclear meltdown (in the fine 2013 French film ‘Grand Central’), I like many others before and still more after me, firmly endorse the Montreal Declaration to End the Nuclear Fission Age (World Social Forum, 2016) -- including Arms, Wars and financially- profit- or strategically-driven politicized waste management, rather than one of collective responsibility and non-profit nature. Raymond Stone Iwaasa, Kaienkéhè:ka, Québec.
    Afin d’éviter I’ultime scène apocalyptique du bon film français ‘Grand Central’ (2013) ou les amants s’embrassent en pleine fonte d’un réacteur, moi, Raymond Stone Iwaasa, j’appuye, tout comme plusieurs ont fait avant, et encore plus feront après moi, ‘La Declaration de Montréal’ issue du Forum Social Mondial (2016) -- incitant globalement la fin de l’âge de fission nucléaire et tout armement, guerre ainsi que des spéculations ou manigances financières ou politiques liées aux déchets plutôt que leur gestion collective responsable et non lucrative. Raymond Stone Iwaasa, Kaienkéhè:ka, Québec.
  • I am the president of the Fish Lake Metis. Our traditional territory encompasses the land north of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan - also the entire territory that is now the Prince Albert National Park. Fish Lake is a provincial heritage site. We took part in the Wanska walk from Pinehouse to Regina in 2011, that brought awareness to 245 Saskatchewan communities that the Nuclear Waste Management Organization was looking for a "willing host community" to accept a repository to store high level nuclear waste. We are also a part of the Committee for Future Generations. Thank you so very much for all of your efforts. Bryan Lee, president, Fish Lake Metis. [Note: The “Wanska walk” and subsequent mobilizations throughout the province of Saskatchewan resulted in that province rejecting the idea of siting of a permanent repository for high-level nuclear waste there.]
  • I, Ronald (Ron) Campbell Craven born in Toronto Ontario Canada and presently living in Osoyoos British Columbia Canada hereby endorse the Montreal Declaration for a Nuclear Fission Free World. I do so, not for my benefit Ñ as I expect to be long deceased before this can be achieved Ñ but for the benefit of the human race which is certain to destroy itself if this declaration cannot be achieved before enough nuclear tragedies occur to make the effects overwhelming to life on this wonderful planet which God had prepared for our enjoyment. All life on this planet is a blessing and should be protected from the greed and hunger for power that induces powerful people to risk everything God has given us so generously. It is the primary requirement of every person on the planet to dedicate his/her energy directly or indirectly to this goal and I urge everyone who becomes aware of this Declaration to set aside as much as possible all other endeavors and dedicate their undivided attention to this purpose for it is the one endeavor that can prevent extinction of the human race along with all other higher forms of life on Planet Earth. Please keep me informed of any activities that are planned to bring this objective to fruition. Ron Craven, Osoyoos BC.
  • We on the National Middle East Committee know that our president has endorsed the declaration for all of WILPF [Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom]. But we like the declaration so much that we want to endorse it also. It expands our Weapons-of-Mass-Destruction-Free-Zone in the Middle East to all of the world. Wonderful! God bless you for what you are doing. Ellen Rosser.
  • I strongly support the Declaration for a Nuclear Fission-free World. I also oppose the Government’s position on cluster bombs. Eleanor Roosevelt was right back in 1964 when she said all nuclear internationally should be under control of United Nations. At least, that is how I feel. I think she was light years ahead of her time and her book Tomorrow is Now, written then, is one that I would not part with for anything. Shirley Bush, Toronto.
  • I shall try to limit my response in words, but I must express the joy of reading of a movement that promises to focus energies on human potential for peace-making. Since the late ’40’s when I attended meetings with atomic physicists in Chicago who were pleading for control of this deadly weaponry, I do what I can with my limited facilities. I now live in rural Michigan as simply as possible, learning and supporting co-operative endeavors. I cannot donate or travel very far for gatherings, but I can write letters to editors and some attention-getting poems, but, at 88 years, most of my unfinished projects may remain unfinished, however I am gaining more courage to speak out and Wild Democracy has the language I wish to learn to explain to anyone with a listening ear the laborious path to a peaceful planet. Thank you all for the spiritual “high”. Bless you, Ruth B. Dimmitt, Michigan.
  • L’application actuelle du nucléaire est une erreur magistrale de notre part. Il ne devrait y avoir ni honte et ni regrets à l’arrêt complet du cycle nucléaire tel qu’on le connaît. Mieux vaut faire demi-tour que de s’effondrer dans un précipice. Quand verrons-nous ce danger immédiat? Votre ami Pierre Bouchard, Ontario.
  • Hi, Please include CCNS [Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety] as a sign-on to the Montreal Declaration. The declaration contains powerful intent and wonderful language to bring people together for a nuclear-fission-free world. Best, Joni Arends, Santa Fe, NM, downwind and downstream of Los Alamos National Laboratory - the birthplace of the atomic bomb.
  • Mes félicitations pour ton texte tout à fait génial! Je i’endosse avec enthousiasme et avec fierté! Das ist eine Sternstunde der Menchheit! Avec mes salutations, Michel Duguay, Québec QC.
  • Dear Friends, I just read the Montreal Declaration and I am profoundly moved with gratitude for this comprehensively written piece which is probably the single most important goal we could have (and Global Warming). I would like to be a signer to this Declaration. As an individual. I will share it with some others and ask them to consider signing either as an individual or as part of a group to which they may belong! I love the Message of the Montreal Declaration and I would love to sign it as an individual, but I no longer have the stamina to do anything significant of the things listed. I am now 91 years old and simply do not have the energy that some my age still seem to possess. But I am grateful for what I have and I appreciate more than I can express the work you are doing to eliminate nuclear weapons and nuclear power and all the terrible problems associated with them and their manufacture, storage, disposal(?), etc. Many blessings, Sister Gladys Schmitz, Minnesota.
    REPLY: Thank you Sister Gladys for this heart-warming message of support. I am sure that your spiritual energy is at least as valuable if not more valuable than the physical and mental energy of us “youngsters” (I myself am 76 - a spring chicken!). I am glad to know that you are from Minnesota, you are the first from that state to endorse the declaration. Peace, Gordon Edwards.
    Thank you for your wonderful reply. I am glad to keep this intention included in prayer. And whenever I see some little thing I can actually to help by other action, I will be very happy to do it. This issue has been a serious concern for me for many decades - since shortly after our bombing [of Japan]! Thank you for accepting my note as an endorsement which I certainly do in my heart! Thank you again for all your work in preparing and promoting this. You are doing WELL at 76 - a good Spring chicken! Blessings, S. Gladys
  • P.S. About 1950 I attended a large science exposition at the new Rochester civic auditorium. Down one of the adjoining halls various films were running. One 16 mm set-up was showing one of a set of 3 films done by the Military (maybe the war dept?) for the doctors in the military. Film one showed the physics of the bomb, and the results of its use in the experiments in the NV desert. (or wherever) Film 2 showed the devastation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki – the leveling of the city, the burned people etc. Just TERRIBLE! Film 3 showed the effects of radiation sickness on victims, the burns up close, many slides of tissue, etc. Each was about an hour long. It could be ordered free from a catalog and I did that for a couple years. Suddenly in 1954 it was no longer available. I have always been sorry that I did not keep the catalog. In the 70s and 80s I tried to see if I could track it down, but I was unsuccessful and have never heard of any others who had seen the films. Have you ever heard of them?
  • Je suis entièrement d’accord pour un monde sans fission nucléaire, je vous envoies mon soutien pour le devenir de notre planète, et I’avenir de I’homme pour les années qui viennent. Merci à vous d’être là pour réaliser un monde meilleur. Marie-Annick.
  • The thinking behind and wording of the Montreal Declaration are sensitive and elegant. I’m glad to have had the opportunity to help bring it out into the world. Looking forward to future collaborations. Joseph Gerson.
  • J’habite un petit village dans la montagne appelé Saint Jean de Vaulx, à 30 km de Grenoble, région Rhône-Alpes. Je soutiens cet appel de Montréal et je vais le diffuser le plus largement possible. Amicalement, Marc Ollivier.
  • Yeh for all of us! A wonderful declaration, a superb piece of work. Lee McKenna.
  • Oui! l’Association de Protection de L’Environnement des Hautes-Laurentides (APEHL) endosse la déclaration de Montréal puisqu’elle demande la fin de l’exploration et un moratoire permanent sur l’exploitation de l’uranium au Québec. Merci pour cette belle initiative devenue action collective mondiale par la reprise du flambeau des collègues militants anti-nucléaires brésiliens, Salutations amicales, François Lapierre.
  • Hello, I’m Tony Langbehn, Convenor of Maryland United for Peace and Justice. We have endorsed the declaration and are committed to the effort. Thank you!
  • This is so excellent! Connie Kline
  • Bonjour. J’ajoute ma voix à celle de toutes celles et tous ceux qui appellent de leur vœux un monde sans armes nucléaires et je signe la Déclaration de Montréal: Nathalie RÉMOND
  • Thanks so much for your work on this crucial issue. It is an especially important matter for folks who reside in Saskatchewan to become involved in, since so much of the world’s uranium comes from mines in Saskatchewan. Florence.
  • I want to endorse this proposal and thank those who worked diligently to make it possible. Kimon Kotos.
  • As a member of the human race, I endorse the Montreal Declaration. Regards, Judith Taylor.
  • Thanks for the great work being done to turn down the nuclear industries including weapons and uranium exploration & mining. Best Regards until radioactive proliferation is reversed, Peter Chataway
  • Bonjour à vous, je suis Daniel Gingras membre de la Société Saint-Jean Baptiste de Montréal section Ledger Duvernay et secrétaire de I’Assemblée Patriotique d’Amérique frangaise [et] membre du conseil d’administration des Artistes pour la Paix. Je désire vous exprimer mon accord avec cette déclaration que je trouve comme étant absolument essentiel afin de pouvoir vivre en santé et sécurité ce qui se veut directement en lien avec la déclaration universelle des droits de l’homme qui je pense devrait être droits humains dans un soucis d’égalité homme et femme. Bien à vous, Daniel Gingras
  • I wonder if a nuclear-free world is possible. Not likely in my lifetime – I’m 86. Shirley Grant.
  • Okay, include me. I must say it’s the first time I had heard it proposed to eliminate even all research reactors. But I guess it makes sense, considering the potential for misuse. Cheers. Chandler Davis.
  • I endorse the Montreal Declaration for a Nuclear-Fission-Free World. Thanks for being a much needed leader on this issue! Michel Goudreau, Gaspésie.
  • Super! Le Mouvement contre le crime atomique (MCCA) a deja signé! J’enverai le “link” en Francais aux autres. Amitiés, Peter Van der Does.
  • On behalf of AWAKENING/art & culture, our 501 (C)3 organization – dedicated to artistry, heritage, imagination and the public interest – and the annual convener of Abolition 2020- Hiroshima / Nagasaki Commemoration in Orlando, Florida, I, Nelson Betancourt, enthusiastically endorse the Montreal Declaration for a nuclear-fission-free world. On a personal level, I am involved in this work because my father died of delayed radiation after working in the atomic test site in Amchitka, Alaska. Sincerely, Nelson Betancourt.
  • Thank you for all your work. This is the most important initiative in both the climate change and peace movements. I hope it quickly will be signed on to around the world, and soon by us in the U.S. I will do my best to spread the word not only among the Friends but in all my other contacts. Barbara Kuesell, New York Quaker.
  • The declaration makes the crucially important point that any playing around with nuclear materials is too dangerous to risk. This “action” should be left to the interior of our friend, the sun. “He” knows how to handle it! I gladly endorse the declaration. Gregory Laxer, Vietnam War Resister.
  • It is with great appreciation that I am writing to endorse the declaration made at the World Special Forum in Montreal, earlier in August of this year. Thanks for all you’re doing, Jerry.
  • I am writing to whole-heartedly endorse the Montreal Declaration for a Nuclear-Fission-Free World. Thank you very much for your work and efforts on behalf of All Life on Earth. Dave Ratcliffe
  • The Montreal Declaration is a timely, important call to mobilize our collective energies in the hope and certainty that public will is the force that can stop the disastrous addiction to nuclear threat and power before it is is too late. The future of civilization depends on elimination of nuclear weapons, and, given the inextricable link between nuclear weapons and nuclear power, both must go. An instrument that promotes awareness, understanding, and action is a great gift to our world. Phyllis Creighton.
  • Je suis membre d’un reseau créé à cette même fin par un collectif de Japonais résidant en France : Yosomononet, et me sens directement concernée (comme devrait l’être toute personne doté d’un peu de lucidité) par les suites de la catastrophe de Fukushima Dai-ichi en mars 2011, et plus globalement par la menace monstrueuse que représente pour la planète l’arsenal de toutes les bombes nucleates déjà prêtes à devenir opérationnelles. Je vous remercie donc de bien vouloir continuer à me transmettre l’état d’avancement de votre démarche par courrier électronique indiquée ci-dessus. Dominique Palmé.
  • I also would like to endorse the Montreal declaration. Thank you ever so much for organizing this great declaration. Kimiko Hinenoya (Japan).
  • J’appuie sans réserve la Déclaration de Montréal pour un monde libéré de la fission nucléaire. Bravo pour cette initivative. Au plaisir, Guylaine Maroist.
  • Quite an impressively -- written statement! Keith Gunter.
  • Keep up the wonderful and crucially important work! Peace and blessings, Ellen
  • God bless you for your great work! Peace and blessings, Ellen Rosser, Ph.D.
  • We will do our best to promote activities of anti-Nuclear weapons and Nuclear Power Plants. Let’s make a strong International Solidarity! Choi Seungkoo
  • I wish to endorse this vitally important, eminently sensible declaration. Lucy Lee Grimes Evans.
  • Conscient de la dangerosité du nucléaire militaire et du nucléaire civil, je suis favorable au désarmement nucléaire sur toute la planète et au développement des énergies renouvelables pour abandonner définitivement l’énergie nucléaire. J’approuve totalement les orientations de la Déclaration de Montréal pour un monde libéré de la fission nucléaire. Thierry Plouzennec.
  • Federation of Rainbow Warriors, Margao, Goa, India would like to be a signatory to the subject declaration. We are strengthening local communities through information and organization to be self-reliant and self-governing units, in order to conserve and protect our land, water and environment for future generations. We are strongly for a nuclear free world and support all resistances to existing and proposed nuclear installations. Thanking you, Rony Dias.
  • THANK YOU for this gorgeous truth telling statement. Sheila Parks Ed.D.
  • Great work you are doing. We [Pilgrim Coalition] are busy shutting down Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant in Plymouth, MA. Wondering why you focused on nuclear fission. I would think that in the end fusion will be just as dangerous. Just a way to siphon funding from real renewables like wind and solar. Paula Sharaga.
    REPLY: There are 3 types of nuclear energy: fission, fusion and radioactivity. (1) Existing and projected nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors all use nuclear fission. Fission technologies all depend on uranium and a uranium derivative, plutonium. This makes it conceivable to maintain a ban on fission technology by preventing access to uranium and plutonium. (2) Viable nuclear fusion reactors do not exist. Thermonuclear weapons (“H Bombs”) use nuclear fusion, but they cannot function without fission to ignite the fusion reaction. So nuclear fusion, in itself, is not a present danger. Fusion is also a lot harder to prevent because the raw material is hydrogen, which is everywhere. (3) Radioactivity (“gamma ray” energy and “alpha and beta” particles emitted by unstable atoms) is used in scientific research, in medical practice, and in several industrial applications. There are dozens of naturally occurring radioactive elements, as well as a large number of artificially-created isotopes. The production and use of these isotopes does not require nuclear fission. So large numbers of scientists can easily endorse the call to eliminate nuclear fission technology without compunction. (4) If we wish to get rid of those aspects of nuclear energy that constitute a real threat to human survival, without alienating hordes of “otherwise sympathetic” people in science, medicine and industry, this can be done by eliminating only nuclear fission technologies. Other uses of nuclear energy pose separate challenges that can be addressed separately. Gordon Edwards.
 
News / Developments: [back to Montreal Declaration ↩]
January 2017
  • Historic Vote at the UN Means Nuclear Weapons Will be Illegal in 2017, 5 Jan 2017
    The new treaty will certainly not put one nuclear weapon out of use on the day it’s ratified, but it will make them effectively illegal in the eyes of international courts and multinational corporations and banks who will not want the general public to know that they are involved with something illegal and so the treaty will ratchet up the pressure to divest. Civil society campaigns to stigmatise nuclear weapons will be hugely boosted and no politician will ever be able to say that the NPT gives their country the legal right to keep nuclear weapons: and ultimately this is why the United States (and their friends) were so anxious to avoid this resolution being brought to the General Assembly.
December 2016
October 2016
August 2016
  • Focus on Nuclear at World Social Forum,
    Nuclear Forum At WSF Highlights Waste Problems
    By Byron Toben, WestmountMag.ca, 18 August 2016
    Professor Gordon Edwards (Hampstead, Quebec) head of the Canadian Coalition For Nuclear Responsibility (CCNR) one of the key speakers at this nuclear forum, (which consisted of 12 workshops. the most numerous of the hundreds of other themed subjects at the recent World Social Forum) opined that we have left the nuclear age and are now in the nuclear waste age.
  • Historical Data on the Montreal Declaration
See Also: a reference of sources pertaining to this vital project of eliminating all nuclear weapons, ceasing generation of any further high-level (and low-level) nuclear wastes by phasing out all nuclear power plants, and halting all uranium mining globally for the sake of the future of All Life on Earth.



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