In 2013, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) officially declared September 26 as the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, also known as Nuclear Abolition Day. This annual observance is dedicated to increasing public consciousness regarding the peril that nuclear weapons pose to humanity and the imperative of their comprehensive elimination.
The UNGA resolution that established this day, UNGA Resolution 68/32, additionally calls for progress toward a nuclear weapons convention—a global treaty involving nuclear-armed states committed to prohibiting and eliminating nuclear weapons under rigorous and effective international oversight.
September 26 also marks the anniversary of a critical event in 1983 when a near-nuclear catastrophe was narrowly averted due to errors in the Soviet nuclear weapons early warning system, which falsely detected a U.S. ballistic missile attack on Moscow. This incident is vividly portrayed in the award-winning docudrama titled ‘The Man Who Saved the World.’
Back in 1946, the first resolution passed by the General Assembly authorized the Atomic Energy Commission to develop specific proposals for the regulation of nuclear energy and the eradication of not just atomic weapons but also all other major weapons capable of mass destruction.
The General Assembly officially endorsed the objective of general and complete disarmament in 1959. The inaugural Special Session of the General Assembly Dedicated to Disarmament in 1978 further acknowledged that nuclear disarmament should be the primary goal in the disarmament realm.
The international arms control framework has played a vital role in global security since the Cold War era, serving as a deterrent against the use of nuclear weapons. On July 7, 2017, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was adopted, representing a significant milestone as the first multilateral legally-binding instrument for nuclear disarmament negotiated in two decades. Regrettably, on August 2, 2019, the United States’ withdrawal marked the end of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, despite earlier commitments by the United States and the Russian Federation to eliminate an entire class of nuclear missiles.