August 29, marks the International Day against Nuclear Tests

Today, August 29, marks the International Day against Nuclear Tests. 

 

On December 2, 2009, at the 64th session of the UN General Assembly in New York, a resolution was unanimously adopted to declare August 29 as the International Day against Nuclear Tests. 

 

Kazakhstan initiated the adoption of this document in order to draw the attention of the international community to this important issue and to commemorate the closure of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site on August 29, 1991.

 

In 2010, in the Belgian city of Ypres, where weapons of mass destruction were first used in April 1915, Kazakhstan erected a monument to the victims of nuclear tests on the territory of the In Flanders Fields Museum. In 2012, Ypres and Semey became twin cities.