Members of the ICAN and the Greek Anti-Nuclear Alliance invited ICAN Executive Director Melissa Parke to Athens. Melissa Parke, with her rich CV as Australia’s Minister for Internal Development and as a UN expert in Kosovo, Gaza, Yemen, Lebanon, and New York, held a series of meetings with members of the Greek Parliament, the Secretary General of the Municipalities’ Association and the Mayor of Athens during her stay in Greece. The main purpose of the meetings was to strengthen the Anti-Nuclear Alliance, aiming at the voting and ratification of the of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons by the Hellenic Parliament.
On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the US government, a press conference was held on September 16 under the topic: “War, threats, and conflicts: The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons as a tool for Peace.” Melissa Parke had the opportunity to refer to international developments concerning the ratification of the Treaty and its use as a means of exerting pressure on countries that possess nuclear weapons. In June 2025 ICAN has published a fact sheet under the title “Hidden Costs: Nuclear Weapons spending in 2024″. One of the major facts highlighted is that last year, at the same time that more than 750 millions of people were experiencing poverty, the nine nuclear-armed states spent on their nuclear arsenals 100,2 billion dollars, almost 3,169$ per second. Five of them are currently engaged to armed conflicts (USA, Russia, Israel, India, Pakistan).
What came out of this visit? Melissa Parke and the Greek partners understood that the members of the Hellenic Parliament and the representative of the President of the Parliament are keen to create and participate to an inter-parliamentarian committee to ratify the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Also, the Secretary General of KEDE (all Greek Municipalities) will devote a parallel session during their annual national meeting in 2026 on the topic. To date, following the mobilisation of the organisation World Without Wars and Violence, 93 municipalities in Greece have approved a resolution within their councils declaring their will for the Treaty to be ratified by the Hellenic Parliament. The Municipality of Athens, which has also approved the resolution, is among the twelve capitals of the world leading the way with actions for peace and for the prohibition of nuclear weapons.
You can watch Melissa Parke during her speech in the press conference moderated by the greek office of pressenza:
Melissa Parke, ICAN, in Athens: her speech on the need to ratify TPNW.
