In April 1995, the 25-year-old Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) was reviewed at the United Nations to evaluate whether it should be extended. Activists from around the world were dismayed that, in renewing the treaty, nations had left the issue of nuclear abolition off the agenda. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from dozens of countries worldwide responded by writing the founding document of Abolition 2000, setting out an eleven-point program for nuclear disarmament and calling for negotiations to eliminate nuclear weapons. Over 2,000 organizations in more than 90 countries have now enrolled and are actively participating in various working groups to accomplish Abolition 2000’s mission.

Abolition 2000 is an international global network working for a treaty to eliminate nuclear weapons within a time-bound framework. It is open to all organizations endorsing the Abolition 2000 Statement. The Network aims at providing groups concerned with nuclear issues a forum for the exchange of information and the development of joint initiatives. The Abolition 2000 Network meets once a year and communicates on an ongoing basis via a number of list serves and through conferences, teleconferencing, and periodic mailings.

At the 2003 Annual Meeting during the NPT preparatory conference in Geneva, Abolition 2000 launched a new initiative to work with the Mayor of Hiroshima on the “Mayors for Peace” program. The program aims at bringing mayors from around the world together in support of completing negotiations for nuclear disarmament by 2005. Abolition 2000 is also working to register at least 2,000 NGOs at its April 2004 Annual Meeting in New York coinciding with the annual NPT preparatory conference in order to attain massive anti-nuclear participation and press the issue of disarmament with the public and with governments.

The Abolition 2000 Operating Principles

1. The Abolition 2000 Network for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons is composed of organizations which have endorsed the Abolition 2000 Statement.

2. The Abolition Statement is the founding document of the Network and is the only document which has been endorsed by all of the network endorsers.

3. Amendments to the Abolition Statement require consensus.

4. As a functioning Network, we seek means to maintain communications among all of our organizational endorsers.

5. Operating as a Network of the whole, our mission is to maintain communications with the endorsers of the Statement and maintain the list of the endorsers.

6. Any organizational endorser of the Abolition Statement may have a copy of the contact list for the Network, at cost, to encourage broad communication.

7. The Network is currently organized by region, working groups, and projects.

8. No one can speak in the name of the Network as a whole, but working groups, projects, regions, or other configurations of Abolition 2000 endorsers can issue statements, documents etc., in the name of the Group, Project, etc., which are consistent with the principles set forth in the Abolition 2000 Statement e.g., Model Nuclear Weapons Convention Working Group of Abolition 2000.

9. Organizations are encouraged to identify themselves as endorsers of Abolition 2000 on their letterheads, etc.

10. The Abolition 2000 Network may invite all endorsers to annual or special meetings.

11. At previous annual meetings, resolutions were adopted by the participants at the meeting, but the resolutions were issued only in the name of the participants at the meeting.