Engaged Democracy for the Nuclear Age: Nuclear Truth Commission

Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)

Conference on Disarmament

General Assembly First Committee

UN Disarmament Commission

Special Session on Disarmament

Engaged Democracy for the Nuclear Age:
Nuclear Truth Commission

On May 1st 2000, during the UN Non Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, Project EDNA (Engaged Democracy for the Nuclear Age) and WILPF (Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, UN Office) staged a Nuclear Truth Commission. The aim of this successful, ongoing collaboration is to further the disclosure of knowledge and personal experience by creating a public forum for former military personnel, nuclear scientists and workers, and representatives from downwind and indigenous communities. Inspired by the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, it was not difficult to conceive of people coming together, from disparate communities, to provide testimony regarding the continued use and abuse of nuclear technology. But who would stand in judgment of what the past three generations have done?

The boundaries between victim and perpetrator are blurred in the nuclear age. We have been told that bombs have kept the peace. We have been told that nuclear energy is safe. Yet, the products and by-products of these processes not only endanger life at present, but due to the long-lived nature of radioactive materials, they pose an enduring threat to the future. To acknowledge this unique temporal condition, the NPT Nuclear Truth Commission established a panel of listeners from the future. After all testimony was given, each 'future delegate' reflected on the stories they had heard, and offered strength and vision to sustain the struggle against the proliferation of nuclear technology: from uranium mining to radioactive waste 'disposal'. It was a powerful and moving experience for all who attended.

We are grateful to the following people for preparing testimonials at this inaugural event:

ROB GREEN, retired UK Naval Commander
JACQUI KATONA, Australian Aboriginal activist
PILULAW KHUS, Native American activist
MARY OSBORN, Three Mile Island downwinder
RICHARD SALVADOR, Pacific Islander
SETSUKO THURLOW, Hiroshima survivor
ANDREAS TOUPADAKIS, former chemist at Lawrence Livermore National Lab

Transcripts of the Nuclear Truth Commission are being produced in a document that will also include a manual for organizing nuclear truth commissions locally. We hope it will be widely disseminated, so that truth telling and remembering the future will become standard practice inside and outside the international nuclear fraternity, and will encourage transparency and openness in nuclear decision making. For more information please contact: info@projectedna.org

Kathleen Sullivan

Project EDNA (Engaged Democracy for the Nuclear Age)