Faith leaders congratulate 2017 Nobel Peace Prize recipients

Dec 11th, 2017

Twenty-two faith leaders, among them Most Revd Malcolm McMahon, Archbishop of Liverpool and Bishop William Nolan, Bishop of Galloway and President of Justice & Peace Commission Scotland, have issued a statement to congratulate the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), recipients of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize, and urge the UK Government to support the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Faith groups and leaders have in the UK have long expressed moral positions around the retention of nuclear weapons. On the occasion of the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to ICAN, faith communities in the UK call on all parliamentarians and UK citizens to support the abolition of nuclear weapons under international law and call on the UK Government to begin working to this end.

The UK Government continues to advocate a 'step-by-step' approach to disarmament that is unspecific in its overall approach. The government also expresses concerns that the Treaty Prohibiting Nuclear Weapons might divert attention from the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Faith groups and others would agree that continued support for the NPT is essential. But over the past 50 years since the 'grand bargain' of the NPT was agreed, the respective actions of nuclear and non-nuclear states has been unequal. Trust in the NPT is being eroded as nuclear weapons states have failed to provide evidence of their 'good faith undertaking' to negotiate multilateral disarmament.

Pax Christi International is a member of ICAN and was represented at the Ceremony in Oslo.

See the full statement text and list of signatories below:

We congratulate the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons on the award of the Nobel Peace Prize.

As people of faith, we seek to build relationships founded on the basis of our common humanity, moral principles and international law. Our world must not remain divided into nations with nuclear weapons and those without. As we are seeing, the tension caused by this division can only increase with likely dreadful consequences for all.

There is a need for creative political leadership to ensure that any attempt to justify the threat of mass destruction in any circumstance is wholly rejected.

A world free of nuclear weapons achieved by building on established international norms is a global public good of the highest order. No country or government must allow itself to be left behind. Therefore, we call on the UK government to add its support for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

The Most Revd Malcolm McMahon, Archbishop of Liverpool, President of Pax Christi
Bishop William Nolan, Bishop of Galloway, President of Justice and Peace Commission, Scotland
Jamie Cresswell, Director of the Centre for Applied Buddhism, President of the European Buddhist Union
Harun Khan, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain
Bharti Tailor, Vice Chair of Religions for Peace UK
Dr Rowan Williams, Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge
Jill Baker, Vice-President of the Methodist Conference
Rt Revd Paul Bayes, Bishop of Liverpool
Rt Revd Dr Derek Browning, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland
Revd Lynn Green, General Secretary of the Baptist Union
Robert Harrap, General Director of Soka Gakkai International UK
Rabbi Dr Margaret Jacobi
Sanjay Jagatia, Director Secretary General of Hindu Council UK
Revd Loraine Mellor, President of the Methodist Conference
Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra, Christian Muslim Forum
Revd Gyoro Nagase, Nipponzan Myohoji, The London Peace Pagoda
Paul Parker, Recording Clerk of the Quakers
Revd Paul Rochester, General Secretary of the Free Churches Group
Jehangir Sarosh, OBE, Executive Director of Religions for Peace UK
Rabbi Elizabeth Tikvah Sarah, Rabbi of Brighton and Hove Progressive Synagogue
Revd Kevin Watson, Moderator of the General Assembly of the United Reformed Church
Alan Yates, Moderator of the General Assembly of the United Reformed Church