Prevention of nuclear war

Removing the threat of a nuclear war, the General Assembly formally stated at its first special session devoted to disarmament, in 1978, is the most urgent task of the present day. In the Final Document of that session, the General Assembly sought to establish principles, guidelines and procedures with regard to the removal of that threat, and called on the Member States to take urgent and appropriate measures. Its clear call for action was dictated by the awareness that there was no insuperable barrier dividing peace from war and that, unless nations brought the spiralling nuclear-arms race to an end, the day might come when nuclear weapons would actually be used, with catastrophic consequences. In adopting the Final Document, the international community achieved, for the first time, a consensus on an international disarmament strategy having as its immediate goal “ the elimination of the danger of nuclear war and implementation of measures to halt and reverse the arms race”.

Related Subject(s): Disarmament