Nuclear weapons: Betrayal of our trust towards posterity
In Tokyo last Tuesday an anti-nuclear conference was held to mark the 20th anniversary of the dissenting opinion given by Justice C. G. Weeramantry, the former Senior Vice President of the International Court of Justice. In this historic dissenting opinion Justice Weeramantry, widely regarded as one of the world’s most eminent jurists, ruled that nuclear weapons were totally illegal and a crime against humanity. Following are excerpts of Judge Weeramantry’s message to the anti-nuclear conference in Tokyo:
I have much pleasure in sending this message to the conference so kindly organised here in Japan to mark the 20th anniversary of the Advisory Opinion delivered by the International Court of Justice on the question of whether the threat or use of nuclear weapons in any circumstances is permitted under international law. In my opinion, this was one of the most important matters ever to be brought before the International Court of Justice, because it concerns the very future of humanity.
I am strongly of the view that the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is illegal in any circumstances whatsoever. It violates the fundamental principles of international law, and represents the very negation of the basic concerns underlying humanitarian law. It contradicts the fundamental principle of the dignity and worth of the human person on which all legal systems depend. It endangers the human environment in a manner which threatens the entirety of life on the planet and totally damages the interests of future generations. It violates our solemn trust to pass on to them a planetary environment in a condition which is at least as good as that in which we inherited it. No generation since the human race began has committed such a betrayal of trust towards its posterity and to my mind it is surprising that the total and patent illegality of the use of nuclear weapons in any circumstances whatsoever should even be a subject of discussion.
I regret very much that the Court was not able to declare convincingly, directly and categorically the unqualified illegality of the threat or use of nuclear weapons in any circumstances whatsoever.
Modern humanitarian law took its origin and inspiration from a perception of the brutalities of war, long before the enormous brutalities of the nuclear weapon had made their appearance on the world stage. Jean Henri Dunant saw the need to restrain these brutalities in accordance with the dictates of the conscience of humanity. When the brutalities of the nuclear weapon multiply several thousand-fold all the brutalities of war as known in the pre-nuclear era, we still seem to be seriously considering whether its use can be legal.
Nuclear weapons lying in their thousands in the arsenals of the nuclear powers have the potential to destroy civilisation several times over. The next use of a nuclear weapon will not be on a target unable to retaliate but will probably draw nuclear retaliation from even more than one source, given that some non-nuclear powers are under the nuclear umbrella of nuclear powers.
Such an exchange of nuclear weapons will result according to expert opinion in a nuclear winter which could obliterate sunlight over a vast segment of the earth’s surface and effectively destroy our means of sustenance. This would inevitably result in our reversion to the most primitive lifestyle, if humanity is fortunate enough to survive such an attack.
Two of the most outstanding philosophical and scientific minds of the 20th century, Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein who together knew perhaps more about the destructive potential of this new weapon than any others in their time, warned all humanity of these dangers in the Russell–Einstein manifesto which should be compulsory reading for every statesman and scientist.
In this regard it is essential to draw attention to the multicultural and ancient origins of the laws of humanitarian conduct. Basic rules in Hindu, Judaic, Buddhist, Chinese, Islamic, African and European cultural traditions are all in complete harmony that our common goal is the achievement of peace on earth , the avoidance of war, humanitarian conduct and the peaceful settle of disputes. As such, the humanitarian rules of war were not to be regarded as a new sentiment, invented in the nineteenth century, and so slenderly rooted in universal tradition that they may be lightly overridden.
Although we live in a supposedly enlightened age, all the ancient civilisations thought. always, in terms of several generations yet to come. All world religions likewise made it our imperative duty to be trustees of the environment and not to damage it in any way.
What we are doing is exactly the reverse of this ancient wisdom and a principal reason for doing so is that modern civilization is largely governed by short term perspectives - the next ballot box, which may be two or three years away and the next balance sheet, which is less than a year away.
These are the short term perspectives that dominate our lives as opposed to the repositories of wisdom contained in the world’s religions which we profess to follow in theory but totally neglect in practice. It is time for us to break through this desperate dilemma in which humanity is placed and our greatest aids towards doing so are the repositories of wisdom contained in the great religions of the world. It is time for us to discard these selfish thoughts and realise that no generation since the human race began has acted so regardlessly of the rights of our children and the generations yet to come.
One of our greatest duties is the duty we owe to our children and a fortiori our children’s children who are unable to speak for themselves. Every religion stresses this and the nuclear weapon contradicts this in shattering terms.
It is strange that all these are over looked and consigned to oblivion. The Opinion we are celebrating today made every effort to highlight these duties and came very close to declaring the total illegality of nuclear weapons. Such a declaration would have played an important role in preventing the later proliferation of nuclear weapons and the advent of new powers into the nuclear circle.
It is for us to make the most of this judgment which in so many ways categorically states the inhumanity and illegality of this weapon of unprecedented destructive power. This weapon is a betrayal of our responsibility as human beings to all our fellow human beings both now and in the generations to come.
It is my hope that this Conference will achieve this result and propagate to all the world an outright condemnation of the brutalities of this weapon which have been so clearly formulated in so many parts of the Court’s Advisory Opinion. No cause so compelling, no demand so urgent and no universal action so imperative as a categorical declaration of the total illegality of the use of nuclear weapons in any circumstances whatsoever.