Bill Text: HI SCR68 | 2019 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Endorsing And Adopting, And Urging Federal Leaders And The Nation To Endorse, The Treaty On The Prohibition Of Nuclear Weapons To Support United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 16 For Peace, Justice, And Strong Institutions.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 8-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2019-03-11 - Referred to PSM/JDC. [SCR68 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2019-SCR68-Introduced.html

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THE SENATE	S.C.R. NO.	68
THIRTIETH LEGISLATURE, 2019
STATE OF HAWAII

SENATE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

 

ENDORSING AND ADOPTING, and urging federal leaders and the nation to endorse, THE TREATY ON THE PROHIBITION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS TO support united nations sustainable development goal 16 FOR PEACE, JUSTICE, AND STRONG INSTITUTIONS.

 

 

     WHEREAS, Hawaii is a place of peace in the Pacific and its people believe in a better world for all; and

 

     WHEREAS, Hawaii supports the United Nations sustainable development goals and recognizes the interconnectedness of all goals to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development around the globe; and

 

     WHEREAS, since the height of the Cold War, the United States and Russia have dismantled more than fifty thousand nuclear warheads, but approximately fourteen thousand five hundred of these weapons still exist and pose an intolerable risk to human survival; and

 

     WHEREAS, over ninety percent of these weapons are in the hands of the United States and Russia and the rest are held by seven other countries: China, France, Israel, India, North Korea, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom; and

 

     WHEREAS, Hawaii witnessed how the chaos and harm even a missile threat lasting for only thirty minutes can impact the islands; and

 

     WHEREAS, the use of even a tiny fraction of these weapons could cause worldwide climate disruption and global famine; for example, as few as one hundred Hiroshima-sized bombs, small by modern standards, would put at least five million tons of soot into the upper atmosphere and cause climate disruption across the planet, cutting food production and putting two billion people at risk of starvation; and

 

     WHEREAS, a large-scale nuclear war would kill hundreds of millions of people directly and cause unimaginable environmental damage and catastrophic climate disruption by dropping temperatures across the planet to levels not seen since the last ice age; under these conditions the vast majority of the human race would starve and could lead to human extinction as a species; and

 

     WHEREAS, despite assurances that these arsenals exist solely to guarantee that they are never used, there have been many occasions when nuclear armed states have prepared to use these weapons, and war has been averted only at the last minute; and

 

     WHEREAS, nuclear weapons do not possess some magical quality that prevents their use; and

 

     WHEREAS, former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara said, speaking about the Cuban Missile Crisis, "[i]t was luck that prevented nuclear war," yet the United States' nuclear policy cannot be the hope that luck will continue; and

 

     WHEREAS, as the effects of climate change place increased stress on communities around the world and intensify the likelihood of conflict, the danger of nuclear war will grow; and

 

     WHEREAS, Hawaii is home to a significant population of Marshall Islanders, whose homeland was the site of sixty-seven atmospheric nuclear weapons tests during the Cold War, and who have not been adequately compensated for the catastrophic environmental and health consequences of such horrific testing; and

 

     WHEREAS, the planned expenditure of more than $1,000,000,000,000 to enhance the United States' nuclear arsenal will not only increase the risk of nuclear disaster but fuel a global arms race and divert crucial resources needed to assure the well-being of the American people and people all over the world; and

 

     WHEREAS, there is an alternative to this march toward nuclear war:  in July 2017, one hundred twenty-two nations called for the elimination of all nuclear weapons by adopting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Thirtieth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2019, the House of Representatives concurring, that this body endorses and adopts the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons to support the United Nations sustainable goal 16 for peace, justice, and strong intuitions; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that federal leaders and the nation are urged to endorse the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and make nuclear disarmament the centerpiece of the United States' national security policy; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this body calls upon federal leaders and the nation to spearhead a global effort to prevent nuclear war by renouncing the option of using nuclear weapons first; ending the President's sole, unchecked authority to launch a nuclear attack; taking United States nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert; canceling the plan to replace its entire arsenal with enhanced weapons; and actively pursuing a verifiable agreement among nuclear-armed states to eliminate their nuclear arsenals; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate, Majority Leader of the United States Senate, Minority Leader of the United States Senate, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives, Secretary-General of the United Nations, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, members of Hawaii's congressional delegation, Governor of the State of Hawaii, and each mayor of the several counties.

 

 

 

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title: 

United Nations; Sustainable Development; Nuclear Weapons; Prohibition; Treaty