TOWARDS A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS
Presentation at WFUNA Plenary, Seoul 9-13 August 2009
Dr Gari Donn, Covenor, UNA Edinburgh branch

IT IS A GREAT PRIVILEGE TO SPEAKING TO REPRESENTATIVES OF THE WORLD'S UNITED NATIONS ASSOCIATIONS. Many have come vast distances to attend this 39th Plenary Assembly: but however far the distance we have travelled, we all come to promote the UN and its work - to promote tolerance and understanding, and to contribute to the removal of obstacles to peace, security, disarmament.

It is our responsibility to ensure that after our Plenary, the governments of the UN know that we, we the people, are arguing for and forcefully supporting their commitments to nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. Their Responsibility to Protect is at one with our affirmation of the indisputable links between human security, peace, development and human rights. They, like us, must support the UN goal for global peace, justice and prosperity and recognise that it depends, essentially, upon international cooperation between global citizens.

Ours is a world of change. Was it just four years ago the 2005 Review Conference on the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons could not even agree on its Agenda? None of the steps towards nuclear disarmament to which nuclear weapons states had committed themselves in 1995 and 2000 were implemented. And in the run-up to the UN Reform Summit of 2005, were many proposals for strengthening the non-proliferation regime. Yet none were accepted.

But change is upon us as we move tentatively towards the 2010 Review Conference. The Preparatory Committee meetings held in May, attended by 135 States parties, resulted in an Agenda being agreed with items on the operation and implementation of the Treaty as well as on assurances embedded in the Treaty.

The Eighth Review Conference is the chance to change the world still further. It is a chance to move significantly towards disarmament and non-proliferation. Yet, disagreements can, so easily, take over unless we maintain momentum on the worlds leaders. They need to know that we mean business when it comes to peace, security and disarmament.

We addressed some of these issues at our UNA Edinburgh One Day Conference on Civil Society and Nuclear Non-Proliferation, which was held at the Scottish Parliament last April. Speakers representing China, Russia, India as well as various NGOs from the UK, discussed the issues underpinning success for the 2010 Review.

Notable must be the ways in which North Korea and Iran are addressed. In the case of the former, North Korea having withdrawn from the NPT in 2003, a diplomatic dialogue has commenced between the six key players China, Russia, the US, South Korea, Japan and North Korea. In relation to Iran the 3+3 group (France, Germany and the UK + US, Russia and China) have attempted dialogue but, as with dialogue on North Korea, there has been little progress. Both countries, situated in regions of tension and fragility, need to be inserted into geo-political frameworks which provide for non-interference confidence-building measures and economic cooperation.

Another set of issues underpinning any success to be achieved at the Review Conference concerns steps to bring the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty into force, negotiations for a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty and support for universal application of the IAEAs Additional Protocol.

The CTBT must have ratification from the US, China and India. In a significant change in US policy, President Obama has said it is time for the testing of nuclear weapons to be banned. Other countries must be encouraged to also follow that resolve.

The FMCT would ensure that there is no widespread construction of uranium enrichment and spent fuel reprocessing facilities, often seen as the route to nuclear weapons capability. It will allow nuclear energy development without the risks of nuclear proliferation by guaranteeing nuclear fuel services to bone fide civil nuclear users.

And in terms of the IAEAs Additional Protocol, under which states are obliged to declare and report on their entire life cycle of their nuclear industries, there needs to be universal application to allow for and strengthen the right for, sometimes intrusive, international inspections.

Of course one of the key concerns must be the fact that the NPT originally established unequal sets of obligations on the nuclear weapons states and the non-nuclear weapons states. Whilst we can applaud the pledge by the US and Russia, signed in Moscow in July, to agree the phased reduction of some of their nuclear warheads, there is immense scope for further agreements on strategic missiles and even on whole categories of weapons. Such was one dynamic era of disarmament - at the end of the 1980s - with the elimination of intermediate range missiles.

At our Scottish Parliament Conference, the Russian Federation delegate affirmed his countrys commitment to Article VI of the NPT, and the goal of ridding the world of nuclear weapons. He argued forcefully for the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty and noted that Russia stopped production of fissile material over ten years ago. The last remaining reactor producing weapons-grade plutonium is planned to be stopped in 2010.

But steps towards nuclear disarmament cannot be confined to the US and Russia. They must extend to the other three nuclear weapons states, China, France and the UK. An adoption of the No First Use commitment by recognised nuclear weapons states is an initial and essential move. Indeed, as the China delegate at our Conference stated, all nuclear weapon states should promise, like China has already, not to be the first to use nuclear weapons, and not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapons states or nuclear weapons-free zones. Nuclear weapons states should reduce the role of these weapons in their national strategy and stop research and development of new types of nuclear weapons.

In terms of non-proliferation, there are added problems to consider with three nuclear weapons possessing countries which have never signed the NPT - Israel, India and Pakistan. It will be important to maintain the pressure for a nuclear weapons-free Middle East which may also reduce Israeli-Arab tensions; and, for improved India-Pakistan relations, to address the dispute over Kashmir with its geo-political confrontations.

At our Scottish Parliament Conference, Indias General Raghavan, and expert advisor to the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament, said that effective disarmament must enhance the security of all States and not merely that of a few. He noted that at the Conference on Disarmament in 2008, India proposed a seven-point agenda for disarmament, including support for No First Use; no use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapons states; negotiations for a convention on the complete prohibition of the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons; and negotiations for a nuclear convention prohibiting development, stockpiling and production of nuclear weapons moving towards a global non-discriminatory and verifiable elimination of these weapons. Through these agenda commitments, General Raghavan said, India has subjected itself to the provisions of the NPT. Indias approach to nuclear disarmament, nuclear non-proliferation and arms control is to recognise the close synergy between all three. India hopes that the 2010 Review will produce recommendations reinvigorating non-proliferation.

As we move towards the Review Conference we must keep pressure on governments to promote the importance of disarmament and non-proliferation. They must be encouraged to provide substantial support for negotiators and to hold onto the sometimes difficult decisions that will need to be taken.

This is our task as we meet here today, our task as members of the World Federation of UNAs. It is not the getting to the 2010 Review that is the real issue now; rather it is the continuous progress that needs to be made, and supported, in the months and years after 2010. Progress involves all governments shifting defence strategy from nuclear weapons (whether or not they actually possess these weapons of mass destruction) and conflict agendas, to a culture of peace and inter-cultural dialogue.

To that end, we urge governments to promote peace: to increase commitments to the UNs efforts in conflict prevention and resolution - including greater participation by women - and to the crucial roles undertaken by UN Peacekeeping Forces. We advocate the signing and ratification by all UN Member States of the Cluster Munitions Convention and the establishment of an international arms trade treaty. Finally, we urge governments to support the UN Peacebuilding Fund and the Peacebuilding Commission, which will reduce the likelihood of states slipping back into conflict.

These are our challenges. And, together, in this wonderful World Federation of UNAs, we can achieve them. As others have said so well, Yes we can.