Loading Events

On January 22, 2021, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) went into force. The TPNW strongly affirms an existing body of international law that condemns and prohibits the threat or use of nuclear weapons. With 92 state signatories and 65 ratifications, an effort is underway to encourage states to sign and ratify with urgency. Almost a year since Russia invaded Ukraine, Russian President Putin’s references to his country’s nuclear capabilities revived an existential tension and led to considerable press coverage of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

Registration required for a virtual “Critical Voices: From Local to Global” discussion exploring what you should know about the rule of law and nuclear weapons and led by 2018 Sorensen Center Fellow Ariana Smith ’20, Adjunct CUNY Law Professor Seth Shelden, and Hadeel Abu Ktaish.

Smith is Executive Director of the Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy and serves as UN Liaison for the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA). She was a 2018 Sorensen Center Fellow and first worked with LCNP in the same year, researching and publishing a paper on the status of threats of force in international law and presenting on the panel, “The Right to Life Versus Nuclear Weapons.” Shelden is the United Nations Liaison for the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize-winning coalition working to prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons. In this capacity, he assists governments in signing and ratifying the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and he represents ICAN in promoting universalization of the treaty. Ktaish is a Junior Fellow at the Center for International Policy and former intern at the Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy. She recently published a paper tracing the history and current status of negotiations for a Middle East Weapons of Mass Destruction-Free Zone.

The Sorensen Center’s “Critical Voices: From Local to Global” speaker series features extraordinary leaders from around the world discussing groundbreaking issues.

CLE Credits are provided by Community Legal Resource Network at CUNY School of Law

– This CLE program is approved for both experienced and newly admitted attorneys.
– Under Continuing Legal Education regulations, CLE credit will be offered only to those attorneys completing entire session; attorneys attending only part of a session are not eligible for partial credit. Attorneys arriving late are welcome to attend the program but will not be eligible for credit.
– Also note that for remote trainings, attorneys must attend on the webinar; we cannot extend credit for audio only.