Presentation delivered on the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons at the United Nations, New York, September 26, 2014, by Jonathan Granoff, President of the Global Security Institute
Mr. Secretary-General, Mr. President, Your Excellencies, Friends,
Senator Alan Cranston often said, “Nuclear weapons are unworthy of civilization.”
If we contemplate the consequences of the explosion on a civilian population of any of the present 16,300 of these devices of death–the inferno, the radiation, the destruction in proportions beyond human reckoning– our sense of conscience, our sense of common humanity, must compel us to act. Silence, equivocation or procrastination is complicity with the threat nine countries recreate each day, each moment. Nuclear weapons are immoral and therefore we must work together to eliminate them.
Mr. President, the convening of this high-level meeting is thus praiseworthy and it is an honor to speak here today.
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Jonathan Granoff is the President of the Global Security Institute, a representative to United Nations of the World Summits of Nobel Peace Laureates, a former Adjunct Professor of International Law at Widener University School of Law, and Senior Advisor to the Committee on National Security American Bar Association International Law Section.
