ICAN's new Million Pleas initiative aims to gather one million pleas from people all over the globe calling on the leaders of nine nations to finally retire their nuclear weapons.
The initiative was launched by ICAN on 6th August 2010, the 65th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, just three days before a second atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki.
ICAN-UK patron, Air Commodore Alastair Mackie (pictured), reviews the history of the UK's nuclear weapons, and argues that the government must say no to Trident and yes to a Nuclear Weapons Convention.
The importance of distinguishing between nuclear weapon state's rhetoric- and the reality of what they've actually accomplished- has been a recurring theme for disarmament activists at the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference (NPT), held at the United Nations in New York during May.