SGI Delegation Participates in Nuclear Disarmament Conference in New York

From November 27 to December 1, an SGI (Soka Gakkai International) delegation led by Hirotsugu Terasaki, SGI director general for peace and global issues, participated in the Second Meeting of States Parties (2MSP) to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) in New York.   

On November 28, the delegation met with ICAN Executive Director Melissa Parke and Acting Deputy Director Daniel Högsta to discuss future initiatives on toward nuclear disarmament.

Together with the Center for International Security and Policy (CISP), the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the UN and ICAN, the SGI also cohosted a side event. During the event, a documentary, “I Want To Live On: The Untold Stories of the Polygon,” featuring survivor testimonies from Kazakhstan’s Semipalatinsk nuclear test site premiered. The film was created by CISP with support from the SGI.   

The Youth MSP 2023, organized by Youth for TPNW, was also held on November 28 and was attended by youth members of the SGI delegation.

On November 29, Anna Ikeda of the SGI Office for UN Affairs delivered a joint interfaith statement to the 2MSP on behalf of 115 organizations. A youth statement to the 2MSP, which SGI youth helped draft, was also introduced on the same day.

During the 2MSP, photographs from the “Portraits of the Hibakusha: 80 Years Remembered” exhibition, jointly created by the UK-based NGO 80,000 Voices and the SGI, were showcased for the first time on display at the UN Headquarters.