New york: He was born without arms, a legacy of four decades of nuclear explosions at the Semipalatinsk test site in his native Kazakhstan. Artist and anti-nuclear activist Karipbek Kuyukov walked through the halls of UN Headquarters in New York on Monday alongside diplomats, scientists, and survivors, carrying a message he has spent his life delivering: no one should ever again suffer what his generation endured. Mr. Kuyukov, who paints holding the brush with his lips and toes, was among the participants of a symbolic walk ahead of the General Assembly’s high-level meeting on the occasion of the International Day against Nuclear Tests, marked annually on 29 August.
According to United Nations, between 1949 and 1989, the Semipalatinsk site saw 456 nuclear tests. Hundreds of thousands of people living nearby were exposed to elevated levels of radiation, with consequences carried within families across generations. Mr. Kuyukov was 20 years old when Kazakh poet Olzhas Suleimenov launched the Nevada-Semipalatins
k anti-nuclear movement. The movement reached far beyond Kazakhstan, with Mr. Kuyukov standing at protests alongside a chief of the Shoshone people near the United States test site in Nevada, and joining rallies at Semipalatinsk with activists from French Polynesia and Japan.
On 29 August 1991, the Semipalatinsk site was shut down, a date the General Assembly later proclaimed, at Kazakhstan’s initiative, as the International Day against Nuclear Tests. This year marks 35 years since the closure. UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu emphasized that the silence at Semipalatinsk was achieved through the determination of people who rejected nuclear testing. Kazakhstans Permanent Representative to the UN Kairat Umarov described the walk as a powerful reminder that every step towards disarmament matters.
This year also marks the 30th anniversary of the opening for signature of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). Robert Floyd, Executive Secretary of the CTBT Organization, add
ressed young participants, highlighting that disarmament is a multigenerational journey. Meanwhile, concerns about a possible resumption of nuclear testing have re-emerged amid geopolitical tensions. The President of the General Assembly, Annalena Baerbock, stressed that nuclear explosions have consequences without borders.
Speakers included Tina Cordova, a survivor of the 1945 Trinity test in New Mexico, who described five generations of cancer in her family due to radiation exposure. She urged delegates to free future generations from nuclear threats. Mr. Kuyukov echoed these sentiments, emphasizing the importance of educating the younger generation about the dangers of nuclear weapons to ensure a safer world.
The message was clear: to reach a world of kindness, mercy, and compassion, old grievances and past mistakes must be left in history. The path forward requires collective effort and shared experiences to guide the new generation towards a future free of nuclear threats.