International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons

The horror of the Second World War, culminating in the nuclear blasts at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, brought home the need to address the nuclear issue. However, and as outlined in the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) 2020 Armaments, Disarmament and International Security yearbook, at the start of 2020, nine countries — the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea — possessed approxi­mately 13,400 nuclear weapons, of which 3,720 were deployed with operational forces. Approximately 1,800 of these are kept in a state of high operational alert. International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, observed since 2014, is to acknowledge the threat to humanity from nuclear weapons and the necessity for their total elimination. Ploughshares Fund gives financial support to organisations and people that/who promote the elimination of nuclear weapons, prevent the emergence of new nuclear states and build regional peace.