News on Nukes

From 23rd to 27th February 2010 a joined delegation of ten young people from IPPNW, IALANA, BANg and Friedenswerkstatt Mutlangen went to Geneva to attend one meeting of the Conference on Disarmament, to meet with people from WILPF and IPB and to dialogue with representatives of seven missions to the UN in Geneva.

Conference of Disarmament

The meeting of the Conference of Disarmament last 30 minutes and include, despite the introduction and good-bye of the chair, two statements.
Ambassador Soares from Brazil provided some counter-arguments for why the CD should begin work on a fissile material treaty, what that treaty should look like, and how the current world order needs to be improved through efforts for collective security rather than individual security. Ambassador Uhomoibhi of Nigeria made his final speech in the CD, where he stated that in order to achieve nuclear disarmament, immediate steps towards that goal must be taken. He argued that the initiative of Nigeria, together with Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Sweden and Switzerland in their UN General Assembly resolution on de-alerting nuclear weapons is such a step.
We all left the conference room a bit frustrated to get the feeling of deadlock of 14 years and discussed the sense of consensus in such international bodies. Nothing is moving forward because Pakistan is blocking the discussion about the FMCT (Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty) because they want to clarify the question of existing stocks which is also a legitimate claim. In our meetings with diplomats we heard that this is the billing for the US-India deal where Pakistan now feels discriminated. And also the Obama administration is not going another way so Pakistan is blocking process even if they before gave the sign that they support negotiations on the FCMT.

Report on meeting at Missions

We had meetings in seven Missions, including Portugal, Israel, the Netherlands, Russia, Turkey, Italy and Germany. They meetings really were different – some were very informative and the delegates where really open to our questions, others were short and it was complicated to get into a discussion. Mainly we asked similar questions to all mission about the new development referring NATO Nuclear Sharing, the advantages and disadvantages of a nuclear weapons convention and their expectations towards the NPT Review Conference in May.
In very informative talks we got explanations on the call of the discussion about NATO nuclear sharing. It was outlined that nobody is question nuclear deterrence by now but that in the future steps must be taken to get away from it but also that the nuclear weapons countries probably will want to keep their nuclear weapons as an “option for a rainy day”. It was also stressed that the NPT itself is not a disarmament machinery like the biological and chemical weapons convention because the NPT does not include goals for its implementation but there are efforts taken to reform the NPT for example through creating an agency. We had to face the reality that since years disarmament is on agenda of the Conference of Disarmament and nothing is really moving. But to have the NPT and CTBT we already climbed two steps on the stair towards a nuclear weapons convention, the next steps to be taken are the FCMT and Outer Space Treaty. It was also said that in countries the nuclear weapons convention is not present in civil society.
Most of the missions we met agreed that the aim for the NPT should be to strengthen the two pillars of the NPT non-proliferation and disarmament and to make the additional protocol of the IAEA a common standard as well as adopt an action program similar to the 13 steps in 2000. Some also supported the Canadian proposal for a reconstruction of the NPT.
Many also were very concerned that the window of hope is closing of the last weeks because the blockade in FCMT and START negotiations and the USA not ratifying the CTBT and the possibility of further sanctions on Iran which would encourage Iran to disturb the NPT negotiations.
Also the conflict in the Middle East was outlined as a spoiler and that Egypt will not support the goals of the NPT longer if no NWFZ Middle East will be established.
The message in each mission was “We have a political will! Let’s hope the others have also.”