EarthAction

A Divided UN General Assembly Votes on Nuclear Disarmament Resolutions

Last week (Oct 24-30) was UN Disarmament Week, when member states vote on a range of disarmament decisions and resolutions.

Decisions are binding on the United Nations. Resolutions are indications of governments' positions and intent - they are not binding but can be very authoritative and influential if supported by key countries.

The deliberations and votes took place in an environment of increasing tensions between nuclear-armed States, and also an increasing divide between non-nuclear countries and those countries which rely on nuclear weapons for their security.

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Children's Peace Prize Winner Selected to Address UN High-Level Meeting on Nuclear Disarmament

On September 26, the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, world leaders will participate in a High Level Meeting on Nuclear Disarmament.

'The United Nations and its member countries should focus more on disarmament for sustainable development' says 2016 Children's Peace Prize winner Kehkashan Basu, who was last week selected by the President of the UN General Assembly to address the UN High-Level Meeting as one of the two speakers from global civil society.

'The nuclear arms race, in particular, should be halted and the $100 billion global nuclear weapons budget be redirected towards ending poverty, reversing climate change, protecting the oceans, building a sustainable economy and providing basic education and health care for all humanity,' says Ms Basu, who was also named last week as one of Canada's Top 25 Women of Influence for 2018.

'Instead, the nuclear armed States are squandering resources and keeping their nuclear weapons poised to strike. One mistake would cause a humanitarian disaster, robbing children and youth of their health and future, and maybe even ending civilization as we know it.'

The High Level Meeting on the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons (Nuclear Abolition Day) will involve Presidents, Prime Ministers, Foreign Ministers and UN ambassadors presenting either their hopes and aspirations for nuclear disarmament or their excuses for keeping the nuclear arms race going. It falls on the anniversary of the incident in 1983 when a nuclear war was almost fought by accident.

When an incoming US ballistic missile attack was detected at the Serpukhov-15 nuclear warning centre, duty officer Stanislav Petrov, defied protocol and reported a false alarm. He was right. The satellites were wrong. And his action, which is chronicled in the award winning movie The Man Who Saved the World, prevented a potential nuclear calamity the life of which we have never experienced and hope never to see.

The lesson of the 1983 incident, and the 15-20 other times we have nearly had a nuclear exchange, is that nuclear deterrence could fail - and that failure would mean game over,' says Jakob von Uexkull, Founder of the World Future Council. 'As such, the nuclear armed States have to replace nuclear deterrence with better ways to achieve security, just as the overwhelming majority of other countries have already done.'

'Regardless of what the governments do at the UN, civil society will step up its action for nuclear disarmament,' says Ms Basu. 'The most powerful lobby for the nuclear arms race is the nuclear weapons industry.'

'From Oct 24-30, in locations around New York, we will count the $1 trillion nuclear weapons budget for the next 10 years and demonstrate how this money can be reallocated from the nuclear weapons industry into the Sustainable Development Goals and other areas of human and environmental need. This includes direct cuts to nuclear weapons budgets, and divestment from the industry, and is part of the global campaign Move the Nuclear Weapons Money.'

From Basel Peace Office. Learn more here

What are you doing for Nuclear Abolition Day September 26, 2018?

UNFOLD ZERO thanks everyone who took action for nuclear disarmament on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Days. (See Global list of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Day actions).

Now we look forward to September 26, United National International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons (Nuclear Abolition Day), and the day in 1983 when a nuclear war was almost initiated by accident (See The Man who Saved the World).

Nuclear Abolition Day 2018 occurs as world leaders (Presidents, Prime Ministers and Foreign Ministers...) are in New York for the opening session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

Key actions and events for Nuclear Abolition Day

• Sep 26 High Level Meeting. The United Nations will hold a half-day High-Level Meeting at the UN headquarters in New York on September 26. The High-Level Meeting is just a forum for governments to make statements. However, it can be used to promote key initiatives. Click here if you would like to attend the High-Level Meeting as an observer (space is limited and August 25 is deadline for application).
  
  In addition, two civil society representatives will be chosen to speak at the High Level Conference. The UN Office of Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) is preparing a nomination list. Contact UNODA for more information.
  
  
• Support the UN Summit. The UN decided to hold a three-day High Level Conference (Summit) on Nuclear Disarmament in May 2018. However, pro-nuclear forces have managed to have the Summit postponed, and are now trying to have the Summit canceled altogether (See Nuclear Weapon States' Long Arm Seen Behind Deferral of Landmark UN Conference). If the Summit proceeds, it could provide important opportunities to make concrete progress on nuclear war prevention and disarmament initiatives, such as de-alerting, no-first use, nuclear stockpile reductions and building more support for the new Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. 

Action: Sign the Avaaz petition supporting the UN High-Level Conference

Action: Send a letter to your government urging them to support the UN High-Level Conference

Other actions and events

UNFOLD ZERO and Abolition 2000, the global civil society network for the elimination of nuclear weapons, are collating a list of actions and events around the world for Nuclear Abolition Day.

Please inform us of events that you are organizing or know about.

From the UNFOLD ZERO newsletter. Learn more at UNFOLD ZERO

UN Secretary-General to release new disarmament initiative on Women's Day for Peace and Disarmament

On May 24, United Nations Secretary-General Antóio Guterres will release Securing our Common Future: An Agenda for Disarmament, a new initiative to address the humanitarian impact of armed conflict and the increased threats from arms races, international tensions and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

The UNSG will release the agenda at a special event at the University of Geneva which will be live-streamed, making it possible to watch the UNSG's presentation and follow-up discussion on your smartphone, laptop or computer.

May 24 is also the Women's International Day for Peace and Disarmament. Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament (PNND) are using the occasion to release Common security for a sustainable and nuclear-weapon-free world, a joint parliamentary statement commemorating the day and supporting the UNSG's initiative.

The statement, which has been endorsed by leading female parliamentarians from around the world, call for 'diplomacy, conflict resolution, common security and law to address security issues, rather than the threat or use of force.'

It notes that 'The United Nations was established with an array of mechanisms through which nations can resolve conflicts, negotiate disarmament and achieve security through diplomacy not war. These have been supplemented by additional common security mechanisms such as the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. We urge governments to make better use of these common security mechanisms, and especially to replace reliance on nuclear deterrence with reliance on common security.'

175th birthday of Nobel Peace Laureate Bertha von Suttner

The joint parliamentary statement also highlights the 17th anniversary birthday of Bertha von Suttner, the author of Lay Down Your Arms and the first woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

'As women legislators (current and former) from around the world we are inspired by peace visionaries like Berta von Suttner to reach beyond our national borders and different political persuasions to embrace the common interest of all humanity for peace and disarmament.'

Follow-on from Ban Ki-moon's nuclear disarmament initiative

PNND and UNFOLD ZERO actively promoted former UNSG Ban Ki-moon's Five-Point Proposal for Nuclear Disarmament which was supported worldwide and was influential in advancing a framework for a nuclear-weapon-free world.

It is hoped that the new initiative of Antóio Guterres will be even more influential in moving the international community to step back from militarism and war, and to replace this with more comprehensive use of law, diplomacy and common security.

READ MORE AT UNFOLD ZERO

Nuclear Abolition Campaigners Announce New Initiatives at UN Press Conference

Abolition 2000 member organizations organized a press conference at the United Nations in New York today to highlight the critical need for successful diplomacy on nuclear-weapons related conflicts, promote the upcoming UN High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament, and announce two related initiatives.

These were an Open Letter to the Leaders of USA, South Korea and North Korea and Count the Nuclear Weapons Money, a civil society action to take place during the UN High Level Conference.

Open letter to leaders of USA, South Korea and North Korea

Jackie Cabasso, Executive Director of Western States Legal Foundation, released the open letter, which has been signed by more than 100 US civil society groups. The letter expresses support for the upcoming inter-Korean summit in April and the US-DPRK summit in May, and urges the leaders “to patiently and diligently seek common ground.”

The letter states: “Dialogue and diplomacy is essential if we are to prevent a war that would likely result in an unthinkable disaster for the Korean Peninsula, the United States and the world…..We recognize that one encounter between US and North Korean leaders will not likely produce an agreement that leads to a lasting solution. But the planned summits offer the potential for starting a serious process that could move us decisively away from the current crisis.”

Support for the UN High Level Conference

"The United Nations has key roles to play in promoting and supporting diplomacy, nuclear risk-reduction and disarmament,' said Jonathan Granoff, President of the Global Security Institute. "The upcoming UN High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament comes at a vital time to build global support from UN Member States. We encourage all UN members to participate at the highest level, and to give full support to nuclear risk-reduction and disarmament measures."

“States could use this opportunity to either sign the new Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons or commit to a negotiation process to stop the new arms race, lower nuclear risks, and fulfill existing disarmament obligations by agreeing to a phased process of reductions leading to the universal, legally enforceable, verifiable elimination of all nuclear weapons,” said Granoff. “As a first step toward a safer saner world, the nine States with the weapons must all pledge never to initiate a nuclear war.”

For more information on how to be engaged in the UN High Level Conference, see Abolition 2000 working group on the 2018 UN High Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament.

Move the Nuclear Weapons Money

The UN High Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament is scheduled to take place in New York May 14 -16. Nuclear disarmament campaigners plan to use the occasion to focus public attention on the nuclear-weapons industry, a key stimulus to the nuclear arms race.

“Companies manufacturing nuclear weapons and their delivery systems are a powerful lobby to increase nuclear weapons budgets, and to expand nuclear weapons policies in order to justify this massive public spending,” said Alyn Ware, Global Coordinator of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament.

“Legislators in our networks are becoming increasingly concerned about the risks of the nuclear arms race, and the fact that budget investments in nuclear weapons reduces the funds available for other important needs,” Ware said. “They have joined with civil society in Move the Nuclear Weapons Money, a global campaign to cut nuclear weapons budgets, and end investments in nuclear weapons companies.”

Count the Nuclear Weapons Money

‘The public is not aware of the colossal amount of money wasted on nuclear weapons, and what an incredible contribution this money could instead make to ending poverty, protecting the climate and providing education, housing and basic health care for all,’ said Holger Gūssefeld, Special Projects Coordinator for the World Future Council. “We will demonstrate this by counting out 1 trillion dollars –- the nuclear weapons budget for the coming decade — while the UN High-Level Conference is taking place.”

“Artists have designed mock $1 million notes. We will count 1 million of these one-by-one over seven days and nights outside the United Nations and in public locations in New York,’ said Gene Seidman, Project Director for Count the Nuclear Weapons Money. “While counting – at $100 million per minute – we will shine the light of shame on companies manufacturing these weapons of mass annihilation, and we will highlight areas of economic, environmental and social need that could instead be met with these funds.”

For more information see Move the Nuclear Weapons Money and the Abolition 2000 Working Group on Economic Dimensions of Nuclearism.

From The Basel Peace Office Team

7 Days in the Life of Avaaz...

Colombian Deputy Minister receives Avaaz petition delivery last week :)

We may have won our campaign to stop Colombia’s massive deforestation!

The team and members brought a million-strong petition (and several cute kids) to a key minister this week, and got 42 election candidates signed on to our 5-point forest pledge! After satellite pictures we obtained showed massive deforestation in Colombia, the President flew over the land we were campaigning for, and it looks like we’re going to win! Here's an update (in Spanish) from Ana Sofia.

Who wouldn't want to protect this?

We might help win the largest ocean reserve in the Atlantic!

Last week we met with the key official pushing this ocean-saving plan at the Ministry of Environment in Brazil. As we entered the room, they were looking at the final draft of the project and the official told us: “We need Avaaz to win this! When are you launching this campaign?!” The minister actually wanted our help to win over the rest of the Cabinet and the President! Video update from Diego (in Portuguese) here.

Our fake far-right leader on his fake tour of southern Italy got over 100 media hits!

We worked our hearts out to stop a far-right win in Italy!

With a fascist-led coalition close to winning the election on Sunday, we were flat-out for a month -- reaching millions of voters in close races over email, on Facebook, and in the media, asking them to cooperate across a splintered opposition, and vote for the candidate most likely to defeat the far-right. Our polling showed our impact, and Avaaz was constantly attacked in the right-wing press (e.g. here and here) and our Senior Campaigner Luca got threatening phone calls.

The election largely turned on the South, so last week we also staged a hilarious fake tour of the South by the far-right leader -- who once said Southerners smelled worse than dogs -- that generated over 100 media articles! Examples here, here and here, and here’s an update from Luca (in Italian). The media likes to hype the fascists, but the result was a clean sweep of the south and the far-right coalition is FAR short of the majority we feared!

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Doomsday Clock Moves Closer to Midnight. UN High-Level Conference Becomes More Important

Photo Credit: Basel Peace Office

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists today moved the hands of the symbolic Doomsday Clock to 2 Minutes to Midnight, indicating that the world is the closest to possible nuclear armageddon since the height of the Cold War in 1953. 

The group of experts who made the adjustment to the clock pointed to rising nuclear tensions between the U.S. and North Korea, specifically “hyperbolic rhetoric and provocative actions on both sides.”

The group, which was founded in 1945 by Manhattan Project scientists, specifically notes “the decline of U.S. leadership and a related demise of diplomacy under the Trump administration” as a global concern and a reason for this year’s leap closer to midnight.

Nuclear risk reduction measures 

Today's announcement highlights the need for nuclear risk reduction measures, such as those being advanced by U.S. Senator Ed Markey, Co-President of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament. 

Markey has introduced legislation into the Senate (with companion legislation in the House introduced by Ted Lieu) to restrict the authority of the U.S. President to launch a nuclear attack without first consulting congress.

Markey has also organized joint congressional letters to the U.S. Secretaries of State, Defense and Energy calling on the current Nuclear Posture Review to include measures to lower nuclear threat postures, reduce the risk of nuclear weapons use, and advance the goal of the global elimination of nuclear weapons.

See Joint letter to Trump administration on reducing role of nuclear weaponsand Joint letter to the Trump administration opposing the production of new destabilizing nuclear weapons.

UN High-Level Conference

In May 2018, the United Nations General Assembly will hold the first ever High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament.

In light of the increased risks of nuclear war, this conference has become even more important than when it was first proposed to the UN five years ago. World leaders participating in this event should be encouraged - and will be expected - to take action to reduce these risks and advance nuclear disarmament.

Take action: 

Call on your government to attend the UN High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament at the highest level (Prime Minister, President or Foreign Minister) and to do their best at the conference to reduce nuclear risks and advance the abolition of nuclear weapons.

Click here for a sample letter and list of government contacts.

From the Basel Peace Office

Call on the UN Security Council to Support Nuclear Disarmament at January 18 Special Session

The United Nations Council will hold a special thematic debate on January 18 on the topic of 'Weapons of Mass Destruction and Confidence Building Measures'.

The debate will be chaired by Kazakhstan President Nazarbayev, and will have a strong focus on diplomacy and trust-building as important elements to prevent proliferation of WMD and to advance disarmament.

Kazakhstan has undertaken national and regional disarmament initiatives, including relinquishing all the nuclear weapons that were on their territory and negotiating a Central Asia Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone. They have also put forward a number of disarmament proposals to the United Nations, including:

•  a call 'on all Member States, especially the Security Council's permanent members, to set a goal of ridding the world of nuclear weapons by the UN's 100th Anniversary in 2045.'
• a proposal for UNmembers to contribute 1% of their military spending to fund the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs).

The veto power of the permanent Members (China, France, Russia, UK and USA) makes it difficult to adopt resolutions on these proposals at the Security Council.

However, support from other Security Council members on January 18 could help pave the way fora successful UN High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament in May 2018, which will not be subject to such veto power.

From the UNFOLD ZERO monthly newsletter

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International Campaign To Abolish Nuclear Weapons Wins 2017 Nobel Peace Prize

Beatrice Fihn, Executive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) receives a bottle of champagne from her husband Will Fihm Ramsay (R) next to Daniel Hogsta, coordinator, while they celebrate after ICAN won the Nobel Peace Prize 2017, in Geneva, Switzerland. Photo by Denis Balibouse/Reuters

Fihn said she could not believe the award was real until the official announcement, and thought the call, made minutes before the ceremony, was a “prank.”

For Fihn, the award is a statement on “unacceptable” nuclear reliance.

“We can’t threaten to indiscriminately slaughter hundreds of thousands of civilians in the name of security. That’s not how you build security,” she said.

The 2017 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).

The Nobel Committee said the organization, which is made up of non-governmental organizations from more than 100 countries, is being honored for its work “to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons.”

ICAN’s immediate goal is to support and implement the 2017 United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which was adopted this summer. It’s the first treaty negotiated for nuclear disarmament in 20 years, the organization said.

The world’s nuclear powers, including the United States and Russia — who lead the nuclear stockpile race with around 6,700 and 7,000 nuclear weapons respectively — opposed the talks, citing a disregard for “the realities of the international security environment.”

“We do not intend to sign, ratify or ever become party to it,” U.S., UK and French representatives to the UN said in a statement earlier this year.

To go into effect, the UN’s treaty needs 50 countries to ratify the deal. So far, 53 countries have signed onto the deal, but only three — Guyana, the Vatican and Thailand — have ratified it.

Beatrice Fihn, executive director of ICAN, expressed shock at receiving the award when she received the news from Oslo.

“What an honor. I feel like I have to collect myself for a couple of seconds,” she said during the initial phone call.

By Jennifer Hijazi, October 6, 2017, PBS News

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Choose Life Without Weapons

From World Future Council:

Sunday 15 June marked the start of Argentina and Bosnia and Herzegovina’s campaigns to win football’s biggest trophy as both countries faced each other in their opening FIFA World Cup match at Rio de Janeiro's legendary Maracanã stadium. Less widely publicised, that day also saw the start of a season of collaboration between the two nations off the pitch.

The World Future Council (WFC) and the UNDP ‘Choose Life Without Weapons’ coalition will partner up throughout 2014 to share community disarmament experiences from both countries.

In the spirit of #GoalsNotGuns, the football match was screened at Art kino Kriterion in Sarajevo. For Bosnia and Herzegovina, the event had particular resonance, as their first World Cup tournament since gaining independence in 1992.

FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter congratulated the partners on “their joint project in Bosnia and Herzegovina aimed at reducing the dangers of firearms - thus protecting youth and developing a culture of peace - which football will help to promote. I’m glad that, like us, you believe in the power of football to foster positive social change.”