The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation Presents:
Professor Richard Falk | The 21st Frank K. Kelly Lecture
On April 7th, more than 100 pursuers of peace gathered in Santa Barbara at the Music Academy of the West to attend the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s 21st Annual Frank K. Kelly Lecture on Humanity’s Future. This year, the lecture was given by Professor Richard Falk, who addressed the legal, moral, and political challenges shaping humanity’s future in an age of conflict, nuclear weapons, and global instability.
Professor Falk is Albert G. Milbank Professor Emeritus of International Law and Practice at Princeton University, where he taught for forty years. He is a leading scholar of international law and international relations and has served as United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories. He is the author of over 75 books, one of the three convenors of SHAPE, Saving Humanity and Planet Earth initiative, and Senior Vice President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.
Richard Falk presented the second Kelly Lecture in 2003. This year he became the first person to give two Kelly Lectures.
NAPF President, Ivana Nikolić Hughes, hosted the evening. She was joined in welcoming Professor Falk by Dr. Mara Sweeney, member of the NAPF board and daughter of David Krieger. Following Professor Falk’s lecture, Ivana read responding remarks from Cynthia Lazaroff, NAPF board member, founder of NuclearWakeUpCall.Earth, and longtime colleague and student of Falk. The evening closed with a few questions from Ivana and the audience.
The Nuclear Ban Monitor 2026 Release
Norweigian People’s Aid
In a divided world, a growing majority of States view nuclear weapons as a threat to collective security and call for disarmament. However, the number of nuclear weapons available for use increased for the ninth consecutive year in 2025. While 99 states are now signatories or states parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, a minority of states are placing increased emphasis on the perceives security value of nuclear weapons.
The below excerpt from the 2026 Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor chapter on the TPNW obligation to adopt national implementation measures was contributed by Warheads to Windmills’ Timmon Wallis. Read the full report here.
States Parties to the TPNW have in force a wide range of national laws, as well as constitutional provisions, prohibiting nuclear weapons domestically. Two States Parties to the TPNW (Ireland and Niue), have adopted national legislation specifically to meet their obligations under Article 5 of the Treaty. For at least 20 other States Parties, the obligations set forth in the treaty automatically became domestic law upon ratification. Other States Parties have legislation predating the TPNW that covers certain of their Article 5 obligations. But for a number of States, it may be necessary or appropriate to adopt new legislation to address legal gaps in the domestic implementation of the TPNW.
Most non-nuclear-armed States are already today implementing most of the core prohibitions of the TPNW. This is because they pursue nuclear-weapon-free defence postures and are Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), and the nuclear-weapon-free zone (NWFZ) treaties, and because they have brought into force Comprehensive Safeguards Agreements (CSAs) and
Additional Protocols (APs) with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).Typically, they already have in place appropriate national measures, including legislation that addresses most or at least some of the core obligations under the TPNW.
There may, however, be gaps in a State’s existing legislation, including incomplete prohibitions on various nuclear weapons-related activities (e.g. testing or assisting a prohibited activity) and lack of penal sanctions for legal persons or individuals under their jurisdiction. The following review of the national legislation of the current 74 States Parties to the TPNW is intended to facilitate the identification of such gaps. It is not a definitive assessment, and the Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor welcomes all clarifications and corrections.
Each State Party is encouraged to develop detailed legislation either specific to the TPNW or which includes its prohibitions in a broader law. In particular, new national legislation should be adopted by each State Party that does not yet have in place laws to criminalize all of the conduct prohibited by the TPNW and, where necessary, to implement its positive obligations. Crucially, all States Parties have to establish whether their existing national laws would make
it illegal for a national or any other person under their jurisdiction or control to develop, test, produce, possess, control, transfer, or use nuclear weapons, or to assist any other person or entity to do so, and whether they could prosecute them. If the answer is a clear yes, they have the required national legislation.
Take Action
Other Announcements:
Mass Peace Action Presents:
No to Nuclear
Tuesday, April 14th, 7pm ET
Why Nuclear Power Destroys Lives, Derails Climate Progress and Provokes War with Linda Pentz Gunter & Chris Nord
Sponsored by MAPA, NJPA, NHPA, and Peace Action Maine
WILPFUS presents:
Building a Peace Economy
Wednesday, April 15th, 8pm ET
A Tax Day webinar exploring how to defund war & create a peace economy through right valuing land and tax reform.
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