Kazakh survivor of nuclear weapons testing addresses UN
- hace 6 años
United Nations, Sep 7 (EFE).- Kazakh artist, anti-nuclear weapons activist and Honorary Ambassador for the ATOM (Abolish Testing Our Mission) Project, Karipbek Kulyukov, addressed the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday as part of ATOM’s bid to muster international support for the abolishment of nuclear testing.
Kuyukov was born without arms as a consequence of the Soviet Union's nuclear tests at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in eastern Kazakhstan, a region where more than 450 nuclear weapons tests were carried out between 1949 and 1991 and a place with among the highest radiation levels globally.
The international campaign is an initiative of the Nazarbayev Center of Kazakhstan, named after the current president of the Central Asian nation, Nursultan Nazarbayev.
Under Nazarbayev's leadership, Kazakhstan renounced all Soviet-era nuclear weapons, destroyed the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site and joined the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty was approved by the UN General Assembly in 1996 and aims to ban all nuclear weapons testing.
To date, the agreement has been signed by 183 states and ratified by 166, but it will not enter into force until the United States, China, Egypt, Israel, Iran, India, Pakistan and North Korea join.
On Dec. 6, 2006, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution highlighting the need to sign and ratify the CTBT, which was supported by 172 countries and rejected by only two - the United States and North Korea.
VIDEO COURTESY OF THE UNITED NATIONS.
Keywords: efe,un,kazakhstan,nuclear,karipbek,kulyukov
Kuyukov was born without arms as a consequence of the Soviet Union's nuclear tests at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in eastern Kazakhstan, a region where more than 450 nuclear weapons tests were carried out between 1949 and 1991 and a place with among the highest radiation levels globally.
The international campaign is an initiative of the Nazarbayev Center of Kazakhstan, named after the current president of the Central Asian nation, Nursultan Nazarbayev.
Under Nazarbayev's leadership, Kazakhstan renounced all Soviet-era nuclear weapons, destroyed the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site and joined the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty was approved by the UN General Assembly in 1996 and aims to ban all nuclear weapons testing.
To date, the agreement has been signed by 183 states and ratified by 166, but it will not enter into force until the United States, China, Egypt, Israel, Iran, India, Pakistan and North Korea join.
On Dec. 6, 2006, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution highlighting the need to sign and ratify the CTBT, which was supported by 172 countries and rejected by only two - the United States and North Korea.
VIDEO COURTESY OF THE UNITED NATIONS.
Keywords: efe,un,kazakhstan,nuclear,karipbek,kulyukov