A four-day conference -- Human Rights, Future Generations and Crimes Against the Nuclear Age, held September 14-17 in Basel, Switzerland, concluded on Sunday with the release of the Basel Declaration on human rights and trans-generational crimes resulting from nuclear weapons and nuclear energy.
The conference included delegations from all over the world who came together to hear presesentations, strategize and network. (The participants are pictured above.) The conference also included the presentation of the 2017 Nuclear-Free Future Awards.
The declaration draws from the scientific evidence presented to the conference, and the application of international law, to conclude that:
"the risks and impacts of nuclear weapons, depleted uranium weapons and nuclear energy, which are both transnational and trans-generational, constitute a violation of human rights, a transgression of international humanitarian and environmental law, and a crime against future generations."
The Basel conference also considered alternatives to nuclear energy and the role of nuclear weapons in security doctrines. As such, the declaration affirms that:
"The energy needs of all countries can be met by safe, sustainable, renewable energies, and that the security of all countries can be met without reliance on nuclear weapons."
The declaration cites REthinking Energy: Renewable Energy and Climate Change , the 2015 Report of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) which demonstrates the possibilities to completely replace fossil fuels by safe renewable energies, without relying on nuclear energy, by 2030.
The declaration highlights that "The high risks of nuclear weapons being used in current conflicts such as in North East Asia, in other times of tension, and until nuclear weapons are eliminated provides an imperative for nuclear abolition."