Oakland, CA – On the one year anniversary of President Obama’s speech from Prague in which he called for a “world without nuclear weapons,” and as he signs the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, a broad coalition of more than 100 faith, peace, and arms control groups from across the country is sending a letter to the president urging him to plan the next step to advance progress toward disarmament.

The letter to the president is signed by a number of organizations from states directly affected by a history of nuclear weapons production. Nuclear disarmament is a top priority for the New Mexico Conference of Churches, which serves over 800,000 Protestants and Roman Catholics across the state.

“After 65 years of living in the shadow of nuclear weapons and suffering from its fallout, a growing number of the people in New Mexico are determined to retire the bomb,” said Reverend Holly Beaumont, Legislative Advocate for the New Mexico Conference of Churches. “In addition to posing a huge threat to human life, nuclear weapons are a Cold War relic and strategically useless.”

As part of his speech from Prague, President Obama stated that negotiating a new nuclear weapons reduction treaty between the U.S. and Russia “will set the stage for further cuts, and we will seek to include all nuclear weapons states in this endeavor.” The coalition's letter asks that the president use the occasion of the April Global Nuclear Security Summit being attended by more than 40 heads of state to announce a new summit on nuclear disarmament in 2011.

“As President Obama signs the New START treaty with Russia this week to cut back the number of nuclear weapons in the world, it's critical that he use this opportunity to build momentum towards a nuclear weapons free world,” said Cara Bautista, coordinator for the Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons Free World. “Just as Obama initiated the first ever Global Nuclear Security Summit to address nuclear security, he can take the next step by announcing the U.S. will convene a new international summit to start real discussions about how to reach the ultimate goal of zero nuclear weapons.”

With the May Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference approaching, the international community is looking for signs of concrete progress toward nuclear disarmament by the nuclear weapons states.

Sr. Marlene Weisenbeck, president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), says her group "has a long history of support for nuclear disarmament." The LCWR is a national organization whose membership includes leaders of many U.S. congregations of women religious. "We were very encouraged by the president's declaration of the need to rid the world of nuclear weapons. Now those words must be translated into action which will set our country, and the world, on a path that moves from a policy of deterrence to a policy of elimination."

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The Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons Free World is a consortium of more than 100 organizations promoting practical steps today to free the world from nuclear weapons tomorrow. For more information, visit www.nuclearweaponsfree.org. The Leadership Conference of Women Religious and the New Mexico Conference of Churches are coalition partners with the Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons Free World. For more information, visit www.lcwr.org and www.nmchurches.org respectively.