Tim Wright from ICAN (International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons) talks with Lisa Er

Is the New Zealand government sheltering under the US nuclear umbrella? 113 nations have endorsed the Humanitarian Pledge which is to stigmatise, prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons. Why hasn't our nuclear-free country signed this? Nine countries together possess more than 15,000 nuclear weapons. The United States and Russia maintain roughly 1,800 of their nuclear weapons on high-alert status – ready to be launched within minutes of a warning. Most are many times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945. A single nuclear warhead, if detonated on a large city, could kill millions of people, with the effects persisting for decades. There are global treaties prohibiting the use, production and stockpiling of certain weapons that the international community has deemed to be inherently inhumane and indiscriminate: chemical weapons, biological and toxin weapons, anti-personnel mines and cluster munitions. No comparable treaty exists for nuclear weapons. These remain, despite their unparalleled destructive capacity, the only WMD not yet comprehensively outlawed. Tim Wright is Asia Pacific Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), a global coalition of non-governmental organisations working to mobilise people in all countries to inspire, persuade and pressure their governments to initiate and support negotiations for a treaty banning nuclear weapons.