Proposed Resolution to Stop the UA Nuclear Weapons Program & Support the UN Bomb Ban Treaty

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RESOLUTION SUPPORTING THE U.N. TREATY ON THE PROHIBITION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND THE TERMINATION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTRACT

WHEREAS, nuclear weapons, the most devastating weapons ever created by human beings, are an existential threat to all higher life on earth with their immense destructive capacity and trans-generational radiation effects; and

WHEREAS, the nine nuclear nations combined possess approximately 14,000 nuclear weapons, more than 90% of which are held by Russia and the United States, most of which are far more destructive than those that killed hundreds of thousands of people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan; and

WHEREAS, scientists have published studies that indicate nuclear war on cities far from Arkansas could send millions of tons of smoke into the stratosphere, blocking sunlight and creating a “nuclear winter” for many years, causing massive or total food crop failure, mass or universal famine and grave social disruption for billions of humans, including those in Fayetteville; and

WHEREAS, our testing, production, and use of nuclear weapons makes clear the racial injustice and harm to human health caused from uranium mining, fallout on indigenous lands downwind from the Nevada Test Site, from 67 nuclear weapons tests in the Marshall Islands, and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; and

WHEREAS, The United States is set to spend at least $1.7 trillion to replace its nuclear arsenal, which is fueling a global arms race, and that money would be better used for necessary programs such as education, healthcare, infrastructure, and clean energy; and

WHEREAS, the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), which entered into force in 1970, requires the United States, Russia, China, France, and England to negotiate “in good faith” for elimination of their nuclear arsenals; and

WHEREAS, in July 2017, 122 countries voted in favor of adopting the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which is a legally binding multilateral Treaty among the States Parties to the document, advanced by the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), and the treaty entered into legal force on January 22, 2021; and

WHEREAS, 53 cities in the United States have now approved resolutions supportive of the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, including Los Angeles, Baltimore, Salt Lake City, and Washington DC, as well as the states of California, Oregon, New Jersey and Maine; and

WHEREAS, the United States Conference of Mayors approved a resolution “Calling on the United States to welcome the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and to Act Now to Prevent Nuclear War and Eliminate Nuclear Weapons,” and Fayetteville’s Mayor is a long-standing member and former chair of Mayors for Peace; and

WHEREAS, Fayetteville has a demonstrated history of opposing nuclear weapons, including the holding of annual Hiroshima Nagasaki Remembrance events since 1979, and the two most recent mayors (Mayor Jordan and Mayor Coody) have publicly read proclamations opposing the existence of nuclear weapons annually for the past 20 years; and

WHEREAS, in 2017, the University of Arkansas Engineering College entered into a Master Collaboration Agreement with Honeywell International for University of Arkansas faculty and students to research and develop nuclear weapons components here in Fayetteville and at Honeywell’s nuclear weapons production facility in Kansas City, funded via an $11.7 billion DOE prime contract number DE-NA0002839.

NOW THEREFORE, the Fayetteville City Council resolves as follows:

Section 1: The Fayetteville City Council joins the ICAN Cities Appeal and urges the US federal government to fulfill its ethical obligations to its people and join the global effort to prevent nuclear war by signing and ratifying the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Section 2: The Fayetteville City Council demands that the University of Arkansas terminate its Master Collaboration Agreement with Honeywell and cease all programs connected to the research and development of nuclear weapons.

Section 3: The Fayetteville City Clerk is directed to annually transmit copies of this resolution to the President of the United States, each United States Senator and Representative from the state of Arkansas, and to the Governor of Arkansas, asking them to support the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Section 4: The Fayetteville City Clerk is directed to annually transmit copies of this resolution to the University of Arkansas Chancellor and Dean of Engineering, as long as the Honeywell contract remains active.