The Hague, July 8, 2026
“30 years ago today, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) affirmed legal obligations of States to refrain from the threat or use of nuclear weapons, and to negotiate to achieve the global elimination of nuclear weapons under strict and effective international control,” said Alyn Ware, Coordinating Committee member of Abolition 2000, speaking at The Relevance of International Court of Justice Advisory Opinions: Nuclear Weapons, Climate Change and other Global Issues. The event is taking place in the Hague on July 8-9, 2026, the 30th anniversary of the historic ICJ nuclear weapons case. Lawyers, academics, legislators (parliamentarians and mayors), diplomats, youth/students and representatives of civil society organizations from around the world have come to the Hague for this special event.
“The ICJ case has helped consolidate a norm of non-use of nuclear weapons, possibly preventing such use,” said Mr. Ware, who served as Executive Director of Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy and UN Advocacy Coordinator for the World Court Project, organizations which campaigned successfully to get the nuclear weapons case considered by the ICJ in 1995-1996. “It has also contributed to the development of law protecting future generations, and has provided inspiration for subsequent advisory opinions on critical global issues, including the recent ICJ Advisory Opinion on the Obligations of States with Respect to Climate Change. However, nuclear armed and allied States continue to rely on nuclear deterrence, which is a general threat to use nuclear weapons, and have yet to commence serious negotiations for nuclear disarmament. And thus, we continue to drift towards unparalleled catastrophe.”
According to Jackie Cabasso, Executive Director of the Western States Legal Foundation in Oakland, California and a member of the Abolition 2000 Coordinating Committee: “The Latin root of the word deterrence means to ‘frighten away, fill with fear.’ The threatened use of nuclear weapons, euphemistically called nuclear ‘deterrence,’ permeates the military-industrial-national security establishments of the most powerful states and the elites they serve. It is an elastic ideology, expressed almost as a religious belief, which has outlived its Cold War origins and is used by nuclear-armed states and those under their protection to justify the perpetual possession and threatened use – including first use – of nuclear weapons, for any number of ambiguous and largely unspecified reasons.”
“Over half the world’s population lives in countries whose national security postures explicitly depend on the doctrine of nuclear deterrence, threatening the murder of many millions of innocent people, with severe economic, climate, environmental, agricultural and health consequences beyond the area of attack,” said Ms Cabasso. “Nuclear disarmament has gone into reverse. All of the nuclear armed states are engaged in costly programs to qualitatively enhance and in some cases quantitatively increase the size of their nuclear arsenals. In 2025, the nine nuclear-armed states spent $16.8 billion (19%) more on their nuclear arsenals than the year before, a total of $119 billion, or $3,768 per second on nuclear weapons.”
“Nuclear weapons are not a memory we are asking the law to honour,” said Ayleen Roy, Core Team Member of Youth Fusion, the Abolition 2000 global youth network. “They are a threat we are asking the law to end, especially before it reaches the generation that has not yet been born to inherit it.”
“Young people deserve a seat at the table to contribute to the meaningful discussions on nuclear disarmament, non-proliferation, risk reduction, and beyond,” said Natia Ninoshvili, another Core Team member of Youth Fusion. “The range of youth initiatives, activism efforts, and ambition has demonstrated our dedication and readiness to engage in these conversations.”
The Abolition 2000 Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons was formally established in the Hague in December 1995 during the public hearings of the ICJ Advisory Opinion on nuclear weapons. Over 2000 organizations from around the world have endorsed the Abolition 2000 Founding Statement.
In addition to supporting the ICJ case against nuclear weapons, the statement includes calls upon all States, particularly the nuclear weapons States, to recognize and declare the illegality of threat or use of nuclear weapons, publicly and before the World Court. The Statement also calls for a treaty to end nuclear tests (since then achieved), an end to the production and deployment of new nuclear weapons, the establishment of additional regional nuclear-weapon-free zones, establishment of an International Renewable Energy Agency to support the development of sustainable and environmentally safe energy source (since then achieved), and the conclusion of a nuclear weapons abolition convention that requires the phased elimination of all nuclear weapons within a timebound framework, with provisions for effective verification and enforcement.
“Non-nuclear States have answered the call of the International Court of Justice by negotiating a Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW),” said Ms. Cabasso. “But the nuclear-armed and allied States oppose the TPNW, arguing that it does not address the security needs for a nuclear-weapons abolition regime that ensures undiminished security, including verification and enforcement of mutual disarmament.”
”This is not a valid excuse for inaction’” said Mr. Ware. “The nuclear armed and allied States could negotiate protocols to the TPNW to address these security concerns, or they could begin negotiating a nuclear weapons convention which includes these mechanisms, or they could start with a Framework Agreement that lays out the general obligations and timeframes, but leaves details for further negotiations. At the very least they should commit to achieving the global elimination of nuclear weapons no later than 2045, a call made in the Appeal for Nuclear Abolition Day which was presented to the UN in September 2025, and will be presented again to the UN on International day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons in September 2026.”