Category: Nuclear Weapons

By Jutta Wolf

BERLIN (IDN | PNND) – Fifty Parliamentarians from 13 European countries have sent a letter today NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and Chair of the OSCE Minister Sebastian Kurz, urging these two key European security organizations to pursue dialogue, détente and nuclear risk reduction in Europe.

The letter on July 14 also calls on NATO and OSCE (the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) to support the multilateral process for nuclear disarmament through the Non-Proliferation Treaty and the United Nations. OSCE is the world’s largest security-oriented intergovernmental organization. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, promotion of human rights, freedom of the press, and fair elections.

By Jayantha Dhanapala*

KANDY, Sri Lanka (IDN) – On July 7 2017, seventy two years after the most inhumanely destructive weapon was invented and used on hapless Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a Conference of the majority of member states in the United Nations decided – by a vote of 122 for; one abstention: and one against – to adopt a Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

It had been a long journey from January 1946 when the newly established United Nations Organization, located temporarily in London, adopted its very first resolution calling for nuclear disarmament signifying the undisputed priority of this issue. Since then, at every session of the UN General Assembly, resolutions with various nuances on nuclear disarmament were adopted with varying majorities.

By Sergio Duarte, Ambassador, former High Representative of the UN for Disarmament Affairs*

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – A large majority of the international community, together with governmental and non-governmental organizations and institutions, achieved an important milestone in the treatment of disarmament questions by concluding a landmark Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The instrument was adopted on July 7, 2017 by 122 votes in favor, 1 against (Netherlands) and 1 abstention (Singapore).

Between March 15 to 31 and June 17 to July 7 the United Nations Conference negotiated a legally binding instrument for the prohibition of nuclear weapons leading to their elimination, in accordance with the mandate contained in General Assembly Resolution 71/278 of December 23 2017. Participants benefitted from several years of studies, proposals and initiatives taken by States, academic institutions and organizations of the civil society on means to achieve the complete elimination of nuclear weapons.

By Ramesh Jaura

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – When the United Nations member states adopted on July 7, 2017 a legally-binding treaty banning nuclear weapons and prohibiting a full range of related activities, it was a historic and highly emotional moment not only for Ambassador Elayne Whyte Gómez of Costa Rica, president of the UN conference. It was also a moment of profound rejoicing for a diverse range of civil society organisations (CSOs).

Twenty-five years after UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali opened the doors for the CSOs and other non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to contribute to the success of the Earth Summit in June 1992 that stressed the inexorable link between environment and development, the CSOs have successfully exercised their ‘soft power’ to help usher in a world free of nuclear weapons.

By Jamshed Baruah

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – While welcoming the adoption of the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons “as a vital step toward the goal of a world free from nuclear weapons”, Faith Communities Concerned about Nuclear Weapons have in a ‘public statement’ called for its universal acceptance and implementation.

The Treaty, adopted on July 7, 2017 at the UN Headquarters in New York, lays out detailed provisions stipulating a comprehensive ban on the development, production, possession, stockpiling, testing, use or threat of use of nuclear weapons. It is the result of intensive negotiations at the UN involving more than 120 governments and many civil society representatives.

By Ramesh Jaura

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – In what was a “historic” and a highly emotional moment at the United Nations, member states adopted on July 7, 2107 a legally-binding treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons.

“The world has been waiting for this legal norm for 70 years,” since the use of the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 at the end of World War II, said Ambassador Elayne Whyte Gómez of Costa Rica, president of the UN conference to negotiate a legally-binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons.

“We feel emotional,” she told a news conference at the UN Headquarters in New York, “because we are responding to the hopes and dreams of the present and future generations.”

Analysis by Tariq Rauf*

VIENNA (IDN) – On June 27, the second draft of the “Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons” was released at the United Nations in New York. Delegations from more than 130 States will now work to finalize the treaty text by July 7, 2017.

The United Nations Conference to Negotiate a Legally Binding Instrument to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons, Leading Towards their Total Elimination has been meeting at the UN in New York on March 27–31 and June 15–7 July 7. Ambassador Elayne Whyte Gómez of Costa Rica is the Conference President, who has done a masterful job in navigating through the competing and often contradictory positions of both States and civil society organizations (CSO) to produce a realistic and workable draft Treaty text.

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – An eminent Buddhist philosopher and peacebuilder, Dr. Daisaku Ikeda, has expressed regrets that the Japanese government did not participate in the first session of the UN Conference to negotiate a nuclear ban treaty, and urged it to work with the Netherlands in the second session from June 15 to July 7, thus making “a unique and vital contribution to the success of the negotiations”.

The centerpiece of negotiations is “a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination.”

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – It was all smiles out on the range when, against a deep blue sky, an American interceptor rocket took out on May 30 an incoming “enemy” long-range, missile (which in a real attack would be carrying a nuclear warhead). Generals and Congressmen and women jumped for joy.

But what was there to be joyous about? Over the decades of the Cold War the nuclear deterrent was supposed to be the instrument that kept the peace. MAD, it was called- Mutually Assured Destruction.

By Daryl G. Kimball

The coming nuclear weapons prohibition treaty is not an all-in-one solution, but it promises to be a historic and valuable leap forward, writes Daryl G. Kimball is the Executive Director of the Arms Control Association (ACA). This appears in June 2017 issue of the ACA’s monthly journal, ‘Arms Control Today’. with the headline ‘Toward a Treaty Prohibiting Nuclear Weapons’. – The Editor

WASHINGTON, DC (IDN-INPS) – Nearly five decades ago, the 1968 nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) established the requirement that states-parties pursue “effective measures” to end the nuclear arms race and to achieve nuclear disarmament.