Answering a Call from Global First Responders

It was the last day of January when Magnus Lovold, Policy Advisor to the Arms Unit, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), called to invite Gender and Radiation Impact Project to speak on the disproportionate harm from ionizing radiation exposure to girls and women at a one-day ‘expert consultation’ on the Humanitarian Impacts of Nuclear Weapons in the ICRC offices in Geneva, Switzerland, in March.

The goal of the meeting was to re-engage the perspectives of impacted communities and first- responders on what would happen if nuclear weapons are ever used (!) and to do so in advance of the 2020 review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) at the United Nations. (The NPT deliberations are now postponed due to pandemic). As I set out for Switzerland, at the tail end of February, I knew I would be surfing the coronavirus outbreak…and as it turned out, the March 2 event was one of the last in-person public meetings before the arrival of coronavirus in Geneva. Happily, after 2 weeks, I did not have symptoms, but I still felt bad that I was a little slow to self-quarantine after travel when I got home March 3.

Magnus invited me to speak thanks to my contribution in 2014 to the Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impacts of Nuclear Weapons. That conference was the culmination of diplomatic efforts across the world to bring nuclear concerns into a new frame, rooted in human rights instead of military strategy. My talk that day in Vienna is among the videos on this website. ICRC was a strong supporter the Vienna Conference as the Red Cross / Red Crescent was the first global organization to call for the termination of the production and use of nuclear weapons, in 1945, immediately following the destruction of Hiroshima…before the United Nations had been formed.

At the Vienna Conference Red Cross and Red Crescent professionals staged a post-nuclear weapon-detonation response as conference participants arrived at the Hofburg Palace venue. Dressed in white hazardous materials suites and masks, they surveyed us for radioactivity, and provided an official tag to wear, affirming our status as having no radioactive contamination…unlike the situation after nuclear weapons are detonated. Two years later (2016) ICRC invited me to speak at a regional meeting of their chapters, in the palace of Catherine the Great in St Petersburg, Russia. It is an honor to be called as an expert by the International Red Cross / Red Crescent.

When ICRC called again this year, I felt duty-bound to rise and respond. Gender and Radiation Impact Project (GRIP) is still in its start-up phase. The ICRC event in Geneva was a profoundly meaningful way to mark the 3rd anniversary of its founding, and was only possible because of the professional support provided by ICRC, paying for airfare and hotel in Geneva.

My hotel was around the corner from the beautiful Basilica Notre-Dame of Geneva

I joined a panel that focused on ongoing research on the consequences of the use of nuclear weapons and how impossible it would be for humanitarian institutions to respond. I shared the basic finding that radiation is more harmful to girls and to women compared to boys and men and then offered the research questions that I identified in my recent peer-reviewed paper “Disproportionate Impact of Radiation and Radiation Regulation.”

The room was dominated by what I lovingly call “policy wonks” who are most comfortable when focusing on the complex history and technical side of the nuclear weapons world. When the time came for a discussion for how to reduce the likelihood that nuclear weapons are used, a strong platform internal policy was presented by our host. I could not help my activist-self from raising my hand to affirm the value of all of the policy recommendations, adding that we also need a mobilization of people, of local and regional governments, and in order for this to be viable, it is important to make common cause with people working to bring attention to the Climate Crisis. Preventing nuclear war is not the same as stabilizing the climate, but the commitment is the same: to a common, healthier future that is sustainable.

Earth now has two global treaties governing nuclear weapons, in addition to bi-and multi-lateral treaties among nuclear weapons states. The NPT is written and enacted in Military Law, and the authority to implement its provisions lies with the UN Security Council. The new Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW 2017) is written under Humanitarian Law, under the jurisdiction of the UN General Assembly. When 50 countries have ratified the new treaty, it will come into force; today 36 nations have become Parties, and 81 are in that process. This treaty is in a direct line from the diplomatic Vienna Conference… and also because of the work of the global umbrella campaign, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017. ICAN is not a newcomer—it is the outgrowth of every nuclear disarmament effort anyone in any nation made, decade after decade—75 years now. People like my mother, Dorothy Olson, who founded United Nations Associations chapters and was Another Mother for Peace and always paid her dues to Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. People, like her, stepping up to the call of the survivors of atomic bombs dropped by the United States on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan in 1945—to never forget, and never again use nuclear weapons. ICAN and the Red Cross stand as our beacons for survival…

The meetings I have been part of are evidence of a commitment to move past nuclear, into a shared future where health and collaborative work for mutual solutions to shared problems without the need to invoke annihilation as the alternative. I is an honor when I am called.

As I sign off this post, the men and women of the International Red Cross / Red Crescent are working overtime responding to the COVID-19 pandemic to save lives. Here is the voice of one artist, Graham Nash, in support of all our first responders, and all of us staying home to stay safe. Enjoy!

Graham Nash Performs CSNY Hit 'Our House' From Home in New York City