[E-rundbrief] Info 912 - Banning nuclear weapons

Matthias Reichl info at begegnungszentrum.at
Fr Mai 14 15:24:34 CEST 2010


E-Rundbrief - Info 912 - Thalif Deen: UN Treaty Aimed at Banning Nukes
Remains Grounded. UN-NPD-conference New York (till end of May 2010).

Bad Ischl, 14.5.2010

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UN Treaty Aimed at Banning Nukes Remains Grounded

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, May 13 (IPS) - The world's anti-war activists,
including parliamentarians, civil society groups and diplomats, have
succeeded in creating international treaties to ban a wide array of
deadly weapons: anti-personnel landmines, blinding laser weapons,
cluster munitions, dum-dum bullets and chemical and biological weapons.

But ”the most iniquitous weapon of all” - the nuclear weapon - has
continued to escape a treaty aimed at eliminating its use, spread and
production.

Asked why a proposed nuclear weapons convention (NWC) has failed to get
off the ground, Alyn Ware, global coordinator for Parliamentarians for
Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (PNND), told IPS: ”The nuclear
weapon is both a military and a political weapon.”

”It projects power,” he said, singling out the world's five most
powerful, and by definition, permanent members of the Security Council -
the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China - who are also the
five declared nuclear powers.

Ware says it is also one of the primary reasons why the four undeclared
nuclear powers - India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea - are holding
onto their weapons of mass destruction.

Still, the longstanding proposal for a convention to ban nuclear weapons
has gathered increased momentum at the current month-long Review
Conference on the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NTP), which
concludes May 28.

Jayantha Dhanapala, a former U.N. Under-Secretary-General for
Disarmament Affairs, told delegates last week: ”We do need a
radical change.”

”In the same manner as we have outlawed biological and chemical weapons
among weapons of mass destruction, and anti-personnel landmines and
cluster weapons as inhumane conventional weapons, we need to begin the
process of outlawing nuclear weapons,” said Dhanapala, president of the
1995 NPT Review and Extension Conference.

The negotiations for a nuclear weapons convention, he said, ”must begin
immediately”.

The abolitionists, led largely by the International Campaign to Abolish
Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), also include scores of anti-war and anti-
nuclear activists worldwide: the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU),
Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, Nobel Women's Initiative,
Federation of American Scientists, Mayors for Peace and Soka Gakkai
International of Japan.

A Model NWC, drafted by an international consortium of lawyers,
scientists and disarmament experts, has been in circulation since 1997
as a United Nations document, and subsequently revised in 2007.

The proposed Convention calls for ”the adoption of legally binding,
verifiable and enforceable instruments, culminating in a comprehensive
prohibition and destruction of all nuclear weapons under effective
controls.”

Dr. Rebecca Johnson, vice chair of ICAN, told IPS the model NWC is valid
as a resource, with many useful ideas for how the technical and legal
challenges might be addressed in a nuclear abolition treaty.

She said it was offered as a collection of ideas to demonstrate that a
comprehensive treaty is feasible, not a ”take-it-or-leave-it” draft for
immediate adoption.

”When negotiations begin, they will start on their own terms, but we
are confident the diplomats will find our discussions, and even some of
our draft text, useful as they seek their own negotiated solutions,”
Johnson added.

Asked if the proposal will come up before the current session of the
NPT, she said the 118-member group of Non-Aligned States, who are
parties to the NPT, and several individual European countries, as well
as Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, have openly called for some kind of
comprehensive treaty.

The call is for a treaty or framework for the total prohibition of the
use and deployment of nuclear weapons and to provide for the phased
elimination of nuclear weapons - in other words, a Nuclear Weapons
Convention, she added.

”This is most heavily supported by a new call from the non-nuclear
countries at this 2010 NPT Conference,” she said.

Because of opposition from some, if not all the nuclear-weapon states,
it will be a tough challenge to get this support for negotiating a
nuclear weapons convention into the final document, Johnson declared.

Still, she noted, there will be some commitment to pursue a
comprehensive, treaty-based approach, which is feasible and clearly
complements calls for reaffirming the 13 practical disarmament steps
adopted by the 2000 NPT Review Conference.

Ware said a majority of governments have supported U.N. resolutions
calling for the immediate commencement of NWC negotiations. These
include some of the countries that possess nuclear weapons - China,
India, Pakistan and North Korea.

On the other hand, he pointed out, there are key countries - most
notably the other nuclear weapons states and many of the countries in
extended nuclear deterrence relationships with the United States - that
express opposition to such negotiations.

They claim there are initial steps and fundamental security issues that
must be addressed before such negotiations could start, Ware said.

Still, many analysts argue that these initial steps and security issues
would be best dealt with in the context of comprehensive negotiations.

A more feasible aim for the NPT Review Conference is to persuade states
parties to agree to a preparatory process of a NWC, Ware added.

A working paper submitted to the 2005 NPT Review Conference by Costa
Rica and Malaysia calls for the exploration of legal, technical,
institutional and political elements required to achieve and maintain a
nuclear weapons-free world.

Dr. Natalie J. Goldring, senior fellow at the Centre for Peace and
Security Studies at Georgetown University, told IPS: ”A nuclear weapons
convention is an ambitious goal.” But with U.S. President Barack Obama's
leadership, it could become a reality, she added.

Goldring pointed out that a nuclear weapons convention is a
logical means of implementing President Obama's commitment to
nuclear disarmament. ”The Obama administration is moving in the
right direction, but needs a greater sense of urgency on these
issues,” she said.

She said the NPT Review Conference, currently underway, is a chance to
reinforce the interlocking commitments of disarmament and
nonproliferation. A Nuclear Weapons Convention would help establish the
path toward nuclear disarmament.

”It would break the cycle of governments making rhetorical commitments
to nuclear disarmament while continuing to develop new nuclear weapons,”
she said, noting that said even committing to negotiation of a
convention would be a significant step forward.

Goldring said that important components of a nuclear weapons convention
would include bans on the development, testing, production, stockpiling,
transfer, and use of nuclear weapons.

The staged approach included in model nuclear weapons conventions makes
sense, as does the focus on U.S. and Russian arsenals in the early
stages, Goldring said.

U.S. and Russian arsenals are by far the largest. Until the U.S. and
Russia make significant cuts in their nuclear weapons, there is little
incentive for other countries to follow suit, she added.

+ Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament
(http://www.gsinstitute.org/pnnd/)
+ International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
(http://www.icanw.org/)

(END/IPS/WD/IP/NU/PG/UN/TD/KS/10)

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Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
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