David Lange

“For his steadfast work over many years for a world free of nuclear weapons.”

David Lange (1942-2005) was a lawyer and politician from New Zealand. He became internationally renowned for his lifelong commitment to a world free of nuclear weapons. Lange, former New Zealand Prime Minister, opposed the US nuclear policy and was a champion of peace groups worldwide.

As the New Zealand Prime Minister from 1984-1989, Lange and his government passed legislation that banned nuclear-powered and armed vessels – including aircraft – from New Zealand territory. The US reacted very negatively to this policy and cancelled all defence exercises with New Zealand, cut intelligence sharing and demoted New Zealand from ally to “friend”, effectively making The Australia, New Zealand, United States Security Treaty from 1951 inoperable.

David Lange personally defended the policy and continued to promote nuclear disarmament nationally and internationally. He and his government announced the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty, formalising a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the South Pacific. The treaty went into force in 1986 and had 13 parties, including New Zealand and Australia.

David Lange died of complications from surgery in 2005 at the age of 63.

We will not in any way tolerate the testing of nuclear weapons, or their manufacture, or their deployment.

David Lange, 2003 Laureate

Early life, career, and advocacy for disarmament

David Lange was born in 1942 and practised as a lawyer before being elected to the New Zealand Parliament. He spoke extensively worldwide, including an address to the Conference on Disarmament and the UN General Assembly. In 1985 he won a debate at the Oxford Union against Christian Rev. Jerry Falwell from the US, arguing that nuclear weapons are morally indefensible. The debate was televised throughout the US and Lange became the champion of peace groups around the world and spoke at many peace conferences. He joined Parliamentarians for Global Action delegations to world leaders to discuss key disarmament issues.

Nuclear-free policy and international diplomacy

The nuclear-free policy was not a one-off for Lange. Back in 1975, he defended peace activists in the courts after they were arrested for protesting against the visits of nuclear-powered and armed warships entering Auckland. As Prime Minister, Lange negotiated a settlement with France, brokered by the UN Secretary-General, as compensation after the French government admitted that its secret service agents had detonated a bomb that sank the Greenpeace Flagship ‘Rainbow Warrior’ in Auckland harbour in 1985, killing one person.

In 1991 he sent a statement about the importance of ‘demonstration as an instrument of international political betterment’ to be read at the trial of New Zealander Moana Cole during her trial in the US for action taken against US bombers during the Gulf War.

Contributions to global peace initiatives

Lange travelled to Iraq in 1999, where he negotiated and gained the release of New Zealand hostages. He advocated for the World Court Project and wrote the foreword for the booklet outlining the case. The Project resulted in the qualified judgement of the World Court in 1996 that the threat or use of nuclear weapons is against international law. Lange was emphatic in his support for the New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark when she criticised the US over the Iraq War.

In his book Nuclear Free: The New Zealand Way, published in 1990, Lange tells the story about the policy against nuclear weapons adopted a few years earlier.

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