Dear ICAN supporters
Welcome to your monthly e-bulletin from ICAN Australia, updating you on the progress we’re making in our worldwide campaign to abolish nuclear weapons and how you can help.

Recent headlines:  ICAN responds to the first report of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND). Grade 6 students at Hawkesdale College talk to The Age about why we need to get serious about nukes. ICAN kicks of 2010 with exciting campaign initiatives including the launch of our new website! 

ICAN Australia News

ICAN Website
We’re very excited to launch our fantastic new website designed by ICAN Australia Board member Tim Wright.  There are lots of exciting interactive new features to help you stay informed and get engaged in the campaign. Check it out and let us know what you think!  www.icanw.org 

Nuclear disarmament commission’s report falls short on nuclear threat
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd joined Japanese counterpart Yukio Hatoyama in Tokyo in late December to receive the first report of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND) ‘Eliminating Nuclear Threats’. ICAN welcomes the report however believes it falls far too short on eliminating the nuclear threat. ICAN is concerned that the recommendations do not go far or fast enough towards getting the world to zero.  Read our media release: http://www.icanw.org/node/4990 

ICAN launches pilot disarmament education project in 200 Victorian schools
ICAN kicks off 2010 with a new disarmament education project in Victoria.  Cat Beaton joins the ICAN Australia team for the next six months to coordinate the rollout of the ICAN ‘Learn Peace’ education kit in 200 schools in Victoria.  The training will also include targeted face-to-face training in a number of schools.  If you know of a school interested in being contacted, please contact us! Check out ICAN’s online education resources targeted to primary and secondary students here: http://www.icanw.org/learn_abolition

ICAN’s Dr Sue Wareham speaks at the World Parliament of Religions
Dr Sue Wareham, ICAN Australia Board member recently chaired a panel at the World Parliament of Religions in Melbourne on Nuclear Weapons Abolition: Response and Advocacy by Religious Communities.  Dr Wareham stressed the vital role people of faith can play. 
Read more here: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/10775

ICAN act: things to do today

Tell the Japanese and Australian Prime Ministers to adopt a clear vision for zero
Both the Japanese and Australian governments are considering how to respond to the ICNND report right now. Send a message to Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in your own words outlining your concerns. Alternatively you can use the sample letter from the ICAN webiste here: http://www.icanw.org/node/5041

Join ICAN on Facebook
Have you joined the cause? Help us spread the word about ICAN through joining the ICAN Facebook cause. ICAN aims to have at least 20,000 members to our ICAN Facebook Cause by the time we go to the UN in May to advocate for nuclear disarmament at the NPT Review Conference.  Join now and ask your Facebook friends to join too!  http://apps.facebook.com/causes/44151?

Mayors for Peace in Australia – help them to grow!
Mayors for Peace work for nuclear disarmament around the world in thousands of communities.  If your Council is not listed, get on to them to join!  
http://www.mayorsforpeace.org/english/membercity/oceania.html

ICAN Give!
Please consider making a donation today so we can continue to campaign on this vital issue and intensify our efforts at this most crucial time.   
Donate at http://www.icanw.org/donate  

Events

ICAN’s New-Clear Exchange
ICAN is organising four one-day free workshops on nuclear weapons issues in February in Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and Sydney. The workshops will be a dynamic mix of information and discussion about nuclear weapons issues targeted to specific civil society groups as well as those already involved in nuclear issues. For more information visit: http://icanw.org/node/5024

Nukes News

The Bomb Squad: Hawkesdale College students talk to The Age about nukes
Grade 6 students from Hawkesdale College in rural Victoria have been using ICAN’s education resources and were fully equipped to talk to The Age’s foreign affairs editor on why we need to get serious about nukes.  Read the story here:
http://www.icanw.org/node/5044

ICAN Opinion on ICNND: Australia's nuclear stance must go beyond deterrence
ICAN’s Chair, Tilman Ruff jointly authored an opinion piece in response to the ICNND report with former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser and a number of other prominent Australians published in both The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.  Read the article in full here: http://icanw.org/node/4994

ICAN Opinion on ICNND: Number of nuclear weapons should go to zero
ICAN’s Campaign Director Dimity Hawkins and ICAN Communications Advisor James Norman wrote an opinion piece before the ICNND report release published in the Canberra Times. Read the article in full here: http://icanw.org/node/4993

 Obama's non-nuclear dream dissolves in politics
11 December 2009: In Oslo on Thursday night, US President Barack Obama accepted the Nobel Prize for Peace. In accepting it he returned to a theme he raised when he won the presidency, that of a ridding the world of nuclear weapons. He said: "If we want a lasting peace, then the words of the international community must mean something . . . One urgent example is the effort to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, and to seek a world without them."
http://www.nationaltimes.com.au/opinion/politics/obamas-nonnuclear-dream-dissolves-in-politics-20091211-knkt.html

WE CAN!

ICAN Australian Bulletin comes to you from the ICAN Australia team sent each month from:
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
G03 60 Leicester Street, Carlton, Victoria, Australia 3053
Phone: + 61 3 9347 4795
Fax: + 61 39347 4995
info@icanw.org

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January 2010