Petition of Support for Trident Ploughshares (Spiritual leader of any Faith)

We the undersigned fully support all those who have signed the Pledge to Prevent Nuclear Crime and identified themselves as Trident Ploughshares activists. We believe that their peaceful and nonviolent attempts at disarming the Trident system are intended to stop ongoing criminal activities under well-recognised principles of international law.

We are aware that the U.K. signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1968, Article VI of which stated that each of the parties 'undertakes to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and to a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control'. Thirty years have now passed and the U.K. still continues the nuclear arms race and NATO is still a nuclear alliance containing three of the major nuclear powers. The Trident system is an escalation in the U.K.'s nuclear capability having three times the range, being far more accurate and being able to hit eight times as many targets as the Polaris system it replaces.

We are also aware that on 8th July 1996, the President of the International Court of Justice (which is the highest legal body of the United Nations), Mohammed Bedjaoui, stated, 'The nuclear weapon, the ultimate evil, destabilises humanitarian law which is the law of the lesser evil. The existence of nuclear weapons is therefore a challenge to the very existence of humanitarian law, not to mention their long-term effects of damage to the human environment, in respect to which the right to life must be exercised'. The Court confirmed that the Declaration of St.Petersberg, the Hague Conventions, the Nuremberg Principles, the Geneva Conventions, and the Genocide Convention all apply to nuclear weapons. It stated very clearly that the threat or use of nuclear weapons is generally contrary to international humanitarian law. The Court could find no lawful circumstance for the threat or use of nuclear weapons.

We understand that it is the duty of every citizen to uphold the law relating to nuclear weapons and under the Nuremberg Principles carefully, safely and peacefully to disarm any nuclear weapon system that is breaching humanitarian law. These Trident Ploughshares activists are acting as fully responsible global citizens and we support their intentions to disarm the UK nuclear system peacefully, safely, openly and accountably.

We applaud the attempts of the Trident Ploughshares activists to urge the U.K. Government, NATO, and others in positions of political and military power, to guarantee to completely disarm the British Trident system. The Trident Ploughshares activists do not wish to have to do the disarmament themselves, however they are willing and ready to do it themselves if necessary and we support them in their intention.