Disarmament

Photo: United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres addresses the Conference on Disarmament’s High-Level Segment 2019, in Palais des Nations, Geneva on February 25, 2019. Credit: UN Photo by Antoine Tardy.

New Report Warns of Resurfacing Nuclear Risks

By Jaya Ramachandran

NEW YORK (IDN) – In the run-up to the 50th anniversary of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) in 2020, arms control experts have warned that "the risk of nuclear use is increasing and … critical nonproliferation and disarmament norms are eroding".

Assessing Progress on Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament in 2016-2019, the Arms Control Association, says: "While there have been some modest gains on safeguards, there has been significant backsliding on the standards related to arms control and risk reduction."

Photo: Caribbean Experts with Nobel Peace Prize 2017 representatives. Credit: ICAN

Caribbean States Vow to Facilitate Swift Entry into Force of Nuclear Ban Treaty

By Jaya Ramachandran

GENEVA (IDN) –Seventy countries have signed and 23 ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) since it was opened for signature at the UN headquarters in New York on September 20, 2017, nearly two-and-a-half months after it was adopted by 122 states. The Treaty will enter into legal force 90 days after 50 nations have signed and ratified it.

The TPNW was adopted in the wake of a decade of advocacy by ICAN, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, and its partners around the world.

NPT Review Conference Will Benefit from CTBT's Entry into Force

By Jamshed Baruah

VIENNA (IDN) – Strongly pleading for a legally binding universal prohibition of nuclear tests, CTBTO Executive Secretary Lassina Zerbo has said that an early entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) in a state of limbo for 23 years will positively influence the outcome of the 2020 NPT Review Conference.

Zerbo was opening a five-day multidisciplinary conference on intended to further enhance the strong relationship between the scientific and technological community and policy-makers as well the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban-Treaty Organization (CTBTO).

Photo: Izumi Nakamitsu, UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) addressing the High-Level Panel “CTBT: Science and Technology in a Changing World” on 24 June at Hofburg Palace, Vienna, as part of the Science and Technology Conference2019 (SnT2019) 24 June-28 June 2019. Credit: CTBTO

Science & Technology Can Contribute to Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation

Viewpoint by Izumi Nakamitsu

The following are extensive excerpts from the statement by Izumi Nakamitsu, UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) at the High-Level Panel “CTBT: Science and Technology in a Changing World” on 24 June at Hofburg Palace, Vienna, in the opening session of the Science and Technology Conference2019 (SnT2019) 24 June-28 June 2019.

VIENNA (IDN-INPS) – The world is witnessing a technological revolution through which an unparalleled convergence in scientific and technological innovations are changing almost every aspect of people’s daily lives. Communications, logistics, manufacturing and, yes, war and peace-making have all been, and will continue to be, revolutionized in our lifetimes.

Photo: Sergio Duarte, then UN High Representative for Disarmament, opening the 6th Conference on Facilitating the Entry into Force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), on 24 September 2009, in New York. Photo # 411972. Credit: UN Photo/Sophia Paris.

Resist Erosion of NPT to Rid the World of Atomic Bombs

Crumbling Security Landscape Ahead of the 2020 Review Conference

Viewpoint by Sergio Duarte

Ambassador Sergio Duarte is President of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, and a former UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs. He was president of the 2005 Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference.

NEW YORK (IDN) – The forthcoming 50th anniversary of the entry into force of the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) provides the opportunity to look for lessons to be learned from its history and from its review cycles.

Photo: Chair Syed Hussin addresses the 2019 NPT PrepCom. Credit: Alicia Sanders-Zakre, Arms Control Association.

Fiddling While the Nuclear Arms Control Architecture Collapses

Viewpoint by Tariq Rauf

Just as the senators of Rome fiddled away while the city burned, today’s diplomats seem helpless in averting the total collapse of nuclear arms control thus paving the way for a dangerous new nuclear arms race with increased risks of accidental or deliberate use of nuclear weapons. Tariq Rauf was Alternate Head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) NPT Delegation 2002-2010, and has attended all NPT meetings as an official delegate since 1987 through 2019. Personal views are expressed here.

NEW YORK (IDN) – The third and final session of the Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) for the 2020 Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) fizzled out in disagreements over the pace and extent of nuclear disarmament at United Nations headquarters in New York.

Photo: 2020 NPT Review Conference Chair Argentine Ambassador Rafael Grossi addressing the third PrepCom. IDN-INPS Collage of photos by Alicia Sanders-Zakre, Arms Control Association.

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Review Conference Could Hit a U.S. Roadblock

By Shanta Roy

NEW YORK (IDN) – The Trump Administration, which has been recklessly wielding a wrecking ball against multilateral treaties, will be put to a test next year when the 1970 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) will be up for review at the 2020 conference scheduled to take place in New York in April-May.

"We have a lot of work to do, especially since next year is the 50th anniversary of the NPT," Malaysian Ambassador Syed Mohamad Hasrin Aidid, who chaired the preparatory committee (PrepCoM) sessions, which concluded May 10, told the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the sidelines of the PrepCom.

Graphic credit: Coalition for Peace Action

Human Survival Lies in the Balance as the Charade of NPT Diplomacy is Wearing Thin

Viewpoint by Dr Joseph Gerson*

NEW YORK (IDN) – Expectations for the outcome of this year’s NPT Preparatory Committee were low at best. Not surprisingly, given the nuclear powers’ reliance on their genocidal and omnicidal arsenals and pressures building for nuclear weapons proliferation, these expectations were not exceeded. As the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has warned, humanity is now as close to nuclear apocalypse as it was at the height of the Cold War.

Mayors for Peace Call for a Common Ground on the NPT

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – In anticipation of the review conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in 2020 at the United Nations, the Mayors for Peace have in a Joint Appeal called for finding a "common ground on the NPT"; because the global interest embodied in the NPT is in the national interests of all countries and all peoples worldwide.

Photo: Kazakh Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yerzhan Ashikbayev, addressing the opening of the Third Preparatory Session for the 2020 NPT Review Conference. Credit: Kazakhstan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Kazakhstan Calls for Rigorous Implementation of the NPT

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – Kazakhstan, an active supporter of nuclear disarmament and strengthening the nuclear non-proliferation regime, has reiterated its firm support for the strict and complete compliance by all parties of the provisions of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

This was stressed by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yerzhan Ashikbayev, head of the Kazakh delegation at the opening of the Third Preparatory Session for the 2020 NPT Review Conference on April 29, 2019 at the UN Headquarters in New York.