Hiroshima Rally, Closing

2002 World Conference against A & H Bombs

Annie Frison

Member of National Bureau, French Peace Movement

France

Ladies, Sirs, dear friends,

Ifm deeply moved to be among you, with you today, to be finally able to, on the spot, approach the horror of the nuclear war, and the unspeakable sufferings caused to the men and women by the atom bomb, and to get more force to testify.

This trip in Japan with the debates, the remembrances, the meetings with the NGO in which, my husband and I let us participate, will be mediatized. The marks of friendship you have shown to us will be engraved in our hearts and give us the courage to continue the struggle against nuclear weapons and for a peace culture.

Next October, we shall organize meetings with the population during the world week against the militarization and the nuclearization of the space. Last year, we had received Bruce Gagnon, american coordinator of the world network against the militarization of the space.

We shall hold our congress on November 2002 the 9th-10th and 11th, to which you are, dear friends, cordially invited. It will have for subject " from my district to my planet, for a world of justice, peace and democracy, the culture of the peace in movement ", and will be preceded by an international meeting of young people of Europe and by the Mediterranean Sea.

I would like to continue with some notes of optimism in this worrying international context by speaking to you about the role of the women, and about the Nations United role with the NGO. The women and the children are the main victims of the wars and the current conflicts, inducing an extreme poverty, a total lack of care and hygiene, a malnutrition and a deficiency in education. These tragic consequences were very widely approached during the preparation of World Walk of the women during the year 2000 to reach the conclusion of a total change of the current global order based on the force and the power.

The French Movement of the Peace set up a « collective Women » and has been working  since this date with the networks of World Walk.

For decade 2001/2010, the UNO held 8 domains of actions for the promotion of the culture of the peace and the non-violence for the benefit of the children of the world. We propose the intensification of the place of the women and the feminine organizations by the establishment of the parity in all the processes of the negotiations for the prevention of the conflicts or the reconstruction of the peace.

I stop by indicating the decisive role of United Nations in the listening brought to the work of the NGO. They are now invited to express themselves before the opening of the international conferences. It was the case in 1995 in Peking on the rights of the women, but also last year to Durban against the racism and it will be the case next month in Johannesburg on the durable development.

Let us be very attentive to the conclusions of these conferences, not governmental and governmental, which demonstrate one after the other the responsibilities of the rich and dominant countries, the nuclear powers, by their rejection to apply the international decisions.

Thank you very much indeed.

Annie Frison