Nazarbayev’s nuclear project and changing perceptions of the world

Dr. Abdel Rahim Abdel Wahed
The first Kazakh president and founder of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev was the first initiator of the concept of a world free of nuclear weapons. He introduced a new international initiative to mobilize global support for the total elimination of nuclear weapons under the name ATOM. This project seeks to clarify the documented catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons tests for world public opinion.
Nazarbayev launched this project at the opening plenary session of the 2012 International Conference on the Banning of Nuclear Tests for a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World in Nur-Sultan, Astana, attended by more than 200 participants from more than 20 international organizations, including the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency. The conference has participants from more than 70 parliaments from all over the world.
The mission of the project is to unite global support for a permanent end to nuclear weapons testing and the complete elimination of nuclear weapons by all countries; It seeks to share the documented reports and concerns of scientists, clinicians, and nuclear experts around the world about the medical and environmental costs of nuclear weapons production and urges people to take concrete action through the international signature of the project’s petition.
The project focuses on developing follow-up steps for its educational and awareness-raising efforts and the growing global interest on threats from nuclear weapons. These include plans to organize a movement for global referendums that will enable people around the world to directly exercise their sovereign rights to express their position on the issue of nuclear disarmament. The project highlights the suffering of individual nuclear test victims over the decades around the world, and hopes to draw attention to the world’s people who have been exposed to radiation poisoning.