Report by Ms. Jacqueline Cabasso, Executive Advisor for Mayors for Peace
July 8, 2021, marked the 25th anniversary of the International Court of Justices’ Advisory Opinion on the legal status of nuclear weapons, in which the Court found unanimously: “There exists an obligation to pursue in good faith and bring to a conclusion negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament in all its aspects under strict and effective international control.”
On July 27, 2021, the Berkeley, California City Council unanimously adopted a resolution “Calling on the U.S. to Negotiate the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons”. Reciting the history of U.S. obligations under international law, beginning with the first United Nations General Assembly resolution in 1946, the resolution “calls on the United States government to reverse its opposition to the 2021 TPNW (Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons) and to welcome the Treaty as a positive step towards negotiation of a comprehensive agreement on the achievement and permanent maintenance of a world free of nuclear weapons, in conformity with requirements of international law preceding the TPNW by decades.” See City Council Regular Meeting eAgenda, July 27, 2021, consent calendar, item 26.