Thursday, September 29, 2016

Ireland to sponsor UN resolution on a treaty to ban nuclear weapons

Ireland is one of six countries sponsoring a landmark resolution for the United Nations General Assembly, proposing that negotiations begin in 2017 on a treaty to ban nuclear weapons. Austria, Mexico, Brazil, South Africa and Nigeria are also sponsoring the draft resolution, which will be voted on in late October or early November. 

The announcement has been widely welcomed by international advocates for nuclear disarmament. “This is an historic breakthrough in global efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons. A treaty banning nuclear weapons will be of enormous importance in establishing a clear, legal rejection of these weapons by the majority of the international community and has the potential to jump start the nuclear disarmament movement – even in the face of resistance from the nuclear-armed states,” said Beatrice Fihn, executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, which represents 440 organisations in almost 100 countries, including Ireland.

The Irish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (Irish CND) has warmly welcomed the announcement, made by the Austrian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday. "Nuclear weapons still have the capacity to wipe out life on earth as we know it, and even limited use would inflict catastrophic humanitarian harm and cause serious environmental damage," said Dr David Hutchinson Edgar, chairperson of Irish CND. 

"This resolution opens the way for the first legally-binding step forward on nuclear disarmament in decades. A treaty banning nuclear weapons would play a very important role in stigmatising the production and possession of nuclear weapons, as well as their use or the threat of their use. It would send a clear signal internationally that the vast majority of states, who do not possess nuclear weapons, will no longer accept the possession and modernisation of these weapons of mass destruction by a handful of states.

"We are delighted that Ireland is one of the states sponsoring this resolution," he continued. "International peace and disarmament are areas in which Ireland has a long tradition of active engagement and leadership. It is reassuring to see that despite our economic woes in recent years, Ireland is still continuing to make its voice heard in working internationally for a world free of the unthinkable potential for destruction represented by nuclear weapons."

The proposal seeks to break decades of deadlock in nuclear disarmament, which has seen nuclear-armed states exploit a loophole in the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to avoid the disarmament obligations implied by that treaty. Ireland's participation builds on a long tradition of leadership in nuclear disarmament, with the Non-Proliferation Treaty widely acknowledged as the brainchild of Irish diplomacy in the 1950s and 1960s. 

The newly-published resolution builds on the report of the United Nations Open-Ended Working Group on Nuclear Disarmament, which met for several sessions in Geneva this year and recommended, in accordance with the majority view at the Working Group meetings, that a resolution along these lines should be brought to the General Assembly. 

Friday, September 9, 2016

Irish CND joins condemnation of North Korean nuclear test

As confirmation emerges of North Korea's largest underground nuclear explosive test to date, the Irish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament has joined with other international civil society organisations in strongly condemning this act. 

"Nuclear weapons are the most notorious weapons of mass destruction ever developed," said Dr David Hutchinson Edgar, Chairperson of the Irish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. "They are in effect weapons of genocide, capable of killing thousands, possibly millions of people in one blast. They cause immeasureable humanitarian suffering and environmental damage. They have no place in civilised society. We urge the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to desist from any further nuclear explosions and to rejoin international processes for nuclear disarmament." 

"We call on all nuclear armed states to engage in negotiations leading to the elimination of nuclear weapons," he continued. "The possession and modernisation of nuclear arsenals by a small number of states acts as an incentive to states like North Korea to acquire these horrific weapons. Non-nuclear-armed states like Ireland have an important role to play within the international community in keeping up pressure to stigmatise, ban and eliminate nuclear weapons." 

Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN, of which Irish CND is a member), Beatrice Fihn, stated, "We are calling on the international community as a whole to prohibit the use, production, testing and stockpiling of nuclear weapons, just as it has prohibited biological and chemical weapons, anti-personnel landmines and cluster munitions. A treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons, even if not universally supported at its outset, would greatly strengthen the global norm against nuclear weapons. It would represent a clear declaration by the international community that nuclear weapons are unacceptable not only for North Korea but for all nations."

More than 15,000 nuclear weapons remain in the world today, with all nine nuclear-armed nations investing in the build-up and modernisation of their arsenals. As North Korea has pursued its nuclear programme, so too have other nations, often without media scrutiny or widespread condemnation. Last month a UN Working Group in Geneva, backed by Ireland, recommended that a conference be convened in 2017 to negotiate a “legally-binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination”.