Nuclear weapons are more commonly considered in the realm of humanitarian law, however the connections between nuclear weapons—their development, testing, use, and threat of use—and human rights are essential to understand as well.
On this page, you can find LCNP analysis on human rights issues related to nuclear weapons, including submissions to legal human rights bodies, a collection of published remarks on a range of human rights issues, and statements and presentations delivered by LCNP staff, board, and advisors highlighting the human rights impacts of nuclear weapons. Resources below address facets of nuclear racism, colonialism, and sexism, among other human rights issues, all as they pertain to nuclear weapons systems around the world.
Of particular note on the subject is the UN Human Rights Committee’s General Comment No. 36 on the right to life as codified in Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). This comment states in its paragraph 66:
The threat or use of weapons of mass destruction, in particular nuclear weapons, which are indiscriminate in effect and are of a nature to cause destruction of human life on a catastrophic scale, is incompatible with respect for the right to life and may amount to a crime under international law. States parties must take all necessary measures to stop the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, including measures to prevent their acquisition by non-state actors, to refrain from developing, producing, testing, acquiring, stockpiling, selling, transferring and using them, to destroy existing stockpiles, and to take adequate measures of protection against accidental use, all in accordance with their international obligations. They must also respect their international obligations to pursue in good faith negotiations in order to achieve the aim of nuclear disarmament under strict and effective international control and to afford adequate reparation to victims whose right to life has been or is being adversely affected by the testing or use of weapons of mass destruction, in accordance with principles of international responsibility.
Racism Concerning Nuclear Issues, LCNP Board member Elizabeth Shafer, 19 July 2023
Russian Federation: Threats to Use Nuclear Weapons Violate the Right to Life and IHL, Submission to the UN Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review, LCNP, 4 April 2023
France, Nuclear Weapons Policy, and the Right to Life, List of Issues Prior to Reporting Submission to the United Nations Human Rights Committee During its Periodic Review of France, LCNP, May 5, 2021
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Nuclear Weapons Policy, and the Right to Life, January 4, 2021
Human Rights Versus Nuclear Weapons: New Dimensions, Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy (LCNP), January 2021. Contributors: Roger Clark, Ariana Smith, Peter Weiss, Daniel Rietiker, Bonnie Docherty, and Andrew Lichterman
Statement of Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy in Commemoration of Human Rights Day, December 10, 2020
Workshop on law and abolition of nuclear weapons, #wethepeoples2020, September 26, 2020
Russian Nuclear Weapons Policy and the Right to Life, List of Issues Submission to the United Nations Human Rights Committee During its Periodic Review of the Russian Federation, LCNP and Western States Legal Foundation, June 1, 2020
US Nuclear Weapons Policy Violates the Right to Life, Submission to the UN Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review by LCNP, Western States Legal Foundation, and Swiss Lawyers for Nuclear Disarmament, October 3, 2019
Nuclear Weapons Violate the Right to Life: Using UN Human Rights Committee General Comment 36 in Grassroots Actions and Campaigns, Abolition 2000 working group on international law and nuclear weapons, June 2019
Human Rights, Democracy, and Nuclear Weapons (text and video): NPT PrepCom Side Event, May 1, 2019
Threat and Use of Nuclear Weapons Contrary to Right to Life, says UN Human Rights Committee, Daniel Rietiker, November 6, 2018
Nuclear Weapons and the Law on Human Rights and Future Generations, report on NPT PrepCom side-event, Geneva, May 1, 2018
Threat or Use of Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Right to Life: Follow-up Submissions to UN Human Rights Committee, IALANA and Swiss Lawyers for Nuclear Disarmament, October 5, 2017
Threat or Use of Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Right to Life: Comments on Draft General Comment 36, IALANA Submission to Human Rights Committee, September 7, 2016
International Humanitarian Law Versus Nuclear Weapons, by John Burroughs, and Hope for Nuclear Abolition: The Humanitarian Perspective, by Ira Helfand and Andrew S. Kanter, Disarmament Times, NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace and Security, Winter 2013
Weapons of Mass Destruction and Human Rights, Peter Weiss and John Burroughs, Disarmament Forum, July 2004