Dear Friends,

We are contacting you because of your interest or engagement in international law, peace and disarmament, or your involvement in the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA).

You may be aware that on 17 January the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved the hands of their Doomsday Clock closer to midnight. The Clock indicates, in the view of eminent scientists, how close we are to a catastrophe that could destroy civilization. It now stands at 5 minutes to midnight. The move was made because of the growing risks from climate change and a growing threat from nuclear weapons including North Korea joining the nuclear club, Iran possibly on its way to doing so, an increased readiness by existing nuclear weapon powers to use nuclear weapons, and an increased propensity to use military force to deal with nuclear proliferation issues.

Mathematician Stephen Hawking, at the press conference announcing the Doomsday Clock change, noted; "As scientists, we understand the dangers of nuclear weapons and their devastating effects…As citizens of the world, we have a duty to alert the public to the unnecessary risks that we live with every day, and to the perils we foresee if governments and societies do not take action now to render nuclear weapons obsolete and to prevent further climate change.”

This indicates the vital importance of IALANA’s work to abolish nuclear weapons.

We have a number of projects this year which could play a significant role in delegitimising nuclear weapons and paving the way for their complete abolition. These include:  

1) a proposal to the United Nations to request the International Court of Justice to render an Advisory Opinion on what is required of the nuclear powers in order to fully implement their nuclear disarmament obligations, and

2) the revision and release of the Model Nuclear Weapons Convention and the book Security and Survival: The Case for a Nuclear Weapons Convention.

 

1. Return to the International Court of Justice on nuclear disarmament obligations

In 1996 the ICJ concluded that:

There exists an obligation to pursue in good faith and bring to a conclusion negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament in all its aspects under strict and effective international control.

The NWS claim that they are complying with this obligation primarily through reductions in numbers of nuclear weapons. However, the majority of other governments – along with academics, nuclear disarmament experts and civil society organizations – claim that the NWS are violating this obligation by continuing (and even expanding) their policies for the threat and use of nuclear weapons, modernizing and renewing their nuclear stockpiles, and refusing to enter into multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations.

Following a conference in the European Parliament in July commemorating the 10th anniversary of the historic 1996 ICJ opinion, IALANA established a working group which has prepared a draft United Nations General Assembly resolution requesting the ICJ for an advisory opinion on the requirements to meet nuclear disarmament obligations.

IALANA, in collaboration with other key organizations (International Peace Bureau, World Court Project UK, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) and International Network of Engineers and Scientists Against Proliferation (INESAP), is now consulting with governments that might be willing to introduce this resolution to the United Nations. If you would like to support, and if you have contacts with governments that might be interested in supporting, please contact John Burroughs (USA) or Alyn Ware (New Zealand).

For more information see:

• Return to the ICJ: one page flyer, World Court Project UK, September 2006
• Dispositif (Conclusions)of the 1996 International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons
• International Court of Justice 1996 Advisory Opinion (full opinion)
• Legal Requirements to Achieve Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, John Burroughs, Article VI Forum, The Hague, March 2, 2006     

 

1. Revision of the Model Nuclear Weapons Convention and the book “Security and Survival: The Case for a Nuclear Weapons Convention”

IALANA is working with IPPNW and INESAP on revision and re-release of the Model Nuclear Weapons Convention (Model NWC) drafted in 1997 by an international consortium of lawyers, scientists, disarmament experts, physicians and activists. We are also updating and republishing the 1999 book Security and Survival: The Case for a Nuclear Weapons Convention, which explores the rationales and possibilities for achieving a nuclear weapons convention - a global treaty on the abolition and elimination of nuclear weapons.

The Model NWC was distributed to governments by the United Nations as a discussion document (UN Doc. A/C.1/52/7) and was also submitted to the US Congress. While it generated considerable interest, the Nuclear Weapon States have so far refused to take up the call to negotiate a treaty on the abolition of nuclear weapons. However, political developments since then have made the proposal for a nuclear weapons convention much more cogent. The prestigious Blix Commission on Weapons of Mass Destruction, for example, concluded recently that:

A nuclear disarmament treaty is achievable and can be reached through careful, sensible and practical measures. Benchmarks should be set; definitions agreed; timetables drawn up and agreed upon; and transparency requirements agreed.

These are just the types of provisions provided in the Model NWC.

The Model NWC and revised book (renamed Securing Our Survival) will be released at the Meeting of States Party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty in Vienna April 30 – May 11.