Tuesday, April 29, 2008

When will states heed civil society's call?

One of the most positive things about the current Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty meeting, which is being held in Geneva for the next two weeks, has been that almost all non-government organisations (NGOs) present have focused on the need for a nuclear weapons convention (NWC). It is central to everything that’s happening here. The national delegations will have to take heed to our call sooner or later!

A group of 50 German students is here to take part in simulated negotiations for an NWC. During the week, they will meet with ambassadors from the nuclear weapon states to ask questions about their stance on the NWC. Sadly, this might be more of an educational experience for the delegates than for the students, who seem to know a great deal about the Model NWC.


Patricia Lewis, the director of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, spoke to the students on Sunday about ways to advance the idea. She raised the possibility of a group of experts set up by the First Committee of the United Nations General Assembly to look into the feasibility of an NWC.

We could put pressure on a government or several governments to set up an Ottawa- or Oslo-style process for an NWC – that is, a process which occurs outside the existing disarmament machinery, she suggested. She expected that one or more of the nuclear-armed states would be interested in participating in such a process from the outset, if only to ‘keep an eye on things’

Another option would be for the NPT to set up a committee to look specifically at the NWC in the lead up to the 2010 Review Conference, but a major problem with this approach is that it would exclude India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea unless they acceded to the NPT as non-nuclear weapon states. The Conference on Disarmament could also promote an NWC – although she concluded that this approach would be less likely than other approaches to gain traction.

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