By Michael Biontino* This commentary was issued by The European Leadership Network. BERLIN | 8 December 2024 (IDN) — In its 79th session (2024), the UN Committee on Disarmament and International Security (First Committee) ad-opted with an overwhelming majority a resolution through which the SecretaryGeneral is tasked to seek the views of Member States on […]
Nuclear Disarmament Is More Important Than Tackling Global Warming
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 22 October 2024 (IDN) — There’s a lot of end-of-the-world hyperbole around on climate change, as every mass flooding is matched by outrageous wildfires. So there should be. But it blankets out other important causes that are even more imminently important—wiping out malaria, sleeping sickness and introducing pure water […]
From High Noon to Steadfast Noon
By Tariq Rauf* VIENNA | 14 October 2024 (IDN) — As the ink dried on the announcement of the award of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2024 to Nihon Hidankyo, the grassroots movement of the Hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki); the merchants of death continued weapons supplies to ongoing wars in central […]
UN Pleads for Elimination of Nuclear Weapons as the Goal Goes on Distance
By Ramesh Jaura BERLIN | 29 September 2024 (IDN) — Global nuclear disarmament has been the highest arms control priority of the United Nations since 1946 when the General Assembly resolved to establish the Atomic Energy Commission (dissilved in 1952), with a mandate to make specific proposals for the control of nuclear energy and the […]
Nuclear-Weapon States Should Pledge No First Use
By Chie Sunada The writer is the Director of Disarmament and Human Rights at Soka Gakkai International. TOKYO | 21 August 2024 (IDN) — This summer, Hironobu Maekawa, alongside his wife Hiroko, spoke for the first time about an experience from almost eight decades earlier. Just weeks after the August 6, 1945, atomic bombing of […]
Kazakhstan Hosts UNODA-backed Non-proliferation Regional Conference
By Ramesh Jaura BERLIN | NEW YORK |19 August 2024 (IDN) — Nearly twenty years ago, the United Nations Security Council took a consequential step to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) by unanimously adopting resolution 1540 (2004). This global instrument requires Governments to prevent non-State actors or terrorists from acquiring, proliferating […]
Nuclear-weapon States Urged to Promote Non-proliferation and Disarmament
By Ramesh Jaura BERLIN | 11 August 2024 (IDN) — The United States deserves unequivocal accolades for joining Egypt and Qatar in exerting its diplomatic weight to avert a wider war in the Middle East. It is regretful, however, that such zeal was missing at the Second Session of the Preparatory Committee for the Eleventh […]
Kazakhstan and UN to Help Bolster Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones
By Ramesh Jaura BERLIN | 2 August 2024 (IDN) — As the spectre of a Nuclear Armageddon haunts our planet, the Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan is joining hands with the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) to organize a workshop—first in five years—to bolster the five Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone (NWFZ) treaties. States-parties to the five […]
S. Korea and India Hold Consultations on Disarmament, Nonproliferation
By Yi Wonju SEOUL | 26 April 2024 (IDN | Yonhap) — South Korea and India held consultations on disarmament to discuss ways to address North Korea’s growing military threats and other emerging security challenges, the foreign ministry said. The fourth “ROK-India Dialogue on Disarmament and Non-proliferation,” led by Youn Jong-kwon, director-general for nonproliferation and […]
Why Not the Whole World as A “Zone of Peace”?
By P. Soma Palan* COLOMBO, Sri Lanka | 21 April 2024 (IDN) — I refer to your Article under the Heading “Indian Ocean – a zone of peace sinking in troubled waters”. I wish to express my seemingly radical views on the subject of attaining world peace in the backdrop of the increasing militarization of […]