Statement On 81st Anniversary Of The Hiroshima & Nagasaki Bombings

Justice For All issues this urgent call to the international community as the world marks 81 years since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Escalating global conflicts and the erosion of international law have made the threat of nuclear annihilation more pronounced than ever. That threat constitutes a profound violation of the fundamental human right to life and the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.

No limited nuclear war is possible, as even a regional exchange would trigger catastrophic annihilation and nuclear winter, devastating global agriculture and ecosystems. The ever-present reality of near-fatal miscalculations, accidental launches and system failures, makes the risk of full-scale nuclear catastrophe dangerously real and imminent.

The anniversaries of the United State’s nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki stand as stark reminders of the devastating humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons and of the international community’s repeated failure to learn from history. Dangerous rhetoric and the brandishing of nuclear threats now recur in flashpoints including Israel’s actions in Palestine and Iran, Russia’s war in Ukraine, and Kashmir, the status of which remains to be decided by a U.N. administered plebiscite and resolved between 2 nuclear states. The right to life and the right to self‑determination are being held hostage by a handful of states. Any use of a nuclear weapon, however limited in scope, would constitute a crime against humanity and a violation of the principles enshrined in the U.N. Charter and international law.

The recent failure of the 2026 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference, which concluded without a consensus final document for the third consecutive time, underscores a growing schism in the global nuclear order. That deadlock, deepened by the ongoing conflict with Iran and disputes over disarmament commitments, leaves the world dangerously exposed. Nuclear-armed states, including the United States, Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom, and the non-declared states of North Korea, Israel, India and Pakistan, continue to modernize their arsenals. Existing arms control agreements, such as New START, have expired. The international legal framework is crumbling precisely when it is most needed.

The failure of the NPT Review Conference directly results from a double standard under which some states are permitted nuclear arsenals while others are punished for pursuing peaceful nuclear energy. Attacks on safeguarded nuclear facilities in Iran compound this injustice and create a path toward proliferation and conflict, not peace. Justice For All calls on all states to reject the logic of deterrence, which amounts to a gamble with the future of humanity.

Justice For All reaffirms the moral and religious consensus against weapons of mass destruction. Islamic teachings unequivocally forbid the use of nuclear weapons, in keeping with the core principle of Rahmah, or mercy. The Prophet Muhammad is described as a mercy to all the worlds, a principle fundamentally incompatible with weapons that annihilate entire populations and poison the environment for generations.

The pursuit of nuclear weapons is not a path to security: it is a rebellion against the divine trust of stewardship on Earth. From Islamic teachings to other global faith traditions and spiritual paths, including the moral calls of the Parliament of the World’s Religions, a unified voice holds that these instruments of genocide and ecocide are an abomination. The international community has a moral and legal duty to ensure they are never used again and are ultimately eliminated.

Justice For All calls for an immediate and verifiable commitment from all nuclear-armed states to a No-First-Use policy, the establishment of Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones in all conflict-prone regions, and full adherence to both the NPT and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. True security lies not in the accumulation of weapons of mass destruction, but in the defense of human rights, the rule of law and the pursuit of justice for all peoples.