ICAN mark International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons with a banner on BNP bank building

From ICAN: Every year on the 26th of September, people all over the world take action to call for a world free of nuclear weapons. This year, we’re showing the world that nothing about nuclear weapons is acceptable. While responsible states from across the globe are signing and/or ratifying the Treaty at a signing ceremony at the UN, citizens all across the planet are taking action to tell BNP Paribas to stop investing in nuclear weapons.

There were events all over the world. This morning, three German ICAN activists (pictured above) protested against BNP Paribas Bank's investments in nuclear weapons. They unrolled a 20 meter banner with the slogan "Stop Investing in Nuclear Weapons" on the roof of the building where BNP Paribas has their offices.

The French BNP Paribas bank has branches in 73 countries and employs 200,000 staff, making it one of the biggest banks worldwide. The bank supports the nuclear weapons industry with billions of dollars, last year alone amounting to 1.4 billion US dollars in loans and other financial services to companies involved in producing or maintaining nuclear weapons systems, warheads and missiles. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear weapons (ICAN) urged its partner organisations to take part in an action day today to call for an end to BNP Paribas' deadly investments .

Martin Hinrichs of ICAN Germany said: "Investments in nuclear weapons are irresponsible. BNP Paribas is fueling the arms race by using its customers' money to finance their potential death. That has to stop." Recently, Deutsche Bank has shown that it is possible by deciding to change their guidelines to rule out investing in nuclear weapons. ICAN Germany also recently started an online action to get financial institutions in the DZ Group (Volksbank, Raifeissenbank, Spardabank) to end their financing of weapons of mass destruction.