Building towards a nuclear weapons-free Middle East: civil society input for a new Helsinki process
This Conference took place on Saturday 13th October 2012
In December 2012, Finland was due to host a conference in Helsinki on behalf of the United Nations, with the goal of making progress towards a WMD-free zone in the Middle East. The initiative was led by Finnish Minister Jaakko Laajava who called for civil society input to the conference. To support this important development, CND held an international conference, drawing together anti-nuclear activists from Britain and the Middle East to discuss input and raise the profile of this crucial issue. Although the UN Conference was due to take place in December 2012, it has now been delayed until further notice.
Click here for summaries of some of the key contributions to the debate.
Recommendations to be forwarded to the Helsinki Conference:
1. We thank Finland for its efforts to facilitate an effective Helsinki Conference process in accordance with the mandate from the 2010 Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. We welcome Ambassador Jaakko Laajava's invitation to civil society to engage constructively as a partner with governments in paving the way for an effective conference that will lead to a process for eliminating all weapons of mass destruction from the Middle East. We believe that such a process will contribute to regional and international security and that civil society has a pivotal role to play in providing ideas and information to support and enhance the process.
2. We offer our contribution with the recognition that the people of the Middle East are the central actors in this process and that this conference will not succeed without addressing their security concerns, reflecting their needs and supporting their voices.
3. We are concerned that the role of WMD is frequently justified or distorted in the policies of states outside as well as within the Middle East region. We recommend that the Helsinki Conference recognises and reflects global public opinion on the immorality of the possession, deployment, production and potential use of nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction.
4. We recommend that the Helsinki Conference should heed frequently disenfranchised voices throughout its process: we particularly ask the Conference to be concerned with the aspirations and needs of children and young people in the region for peace and a secure, sustainable future and to prioritise the involvement of women.
5. In building towards the Helsinki Conference, it is important to ensure that all relevant states and people are represented, and that the conference addresses how to increase public awareness of the issue of possession of weapons of mass destruction in the region and develop civil society involvement in the process and outcome. If it is deemed necessary to postpone the Conference from 2012 in order to facilitate a more effective meeting and outcome, we would support this, but raise serious concerns that any postponement of the Helsinki Conference beyond the 2013 Preparatory Committee meeting of the 2015 NPT Review Conference could have serious and adverse consequences for the non-proliferation regime and regional security.
6. We urge the Helsinki Conference to recognise the humanitarian and environmental consequences of the use, production and deployment of nuclear weapons for all global citizens, both those resident in states possessing nuclear weapons and those in nuclear-free countries.
7. We recommend that the Helsinki Conference recognises the importance of avoiding the use of misleading or value-laden terms such as 'deterrence' which can frame the debate in unproductive ways and inhibit progress towards consensus and disarmament.
8. We recognise that the Helsinki Conference will need to consider the broader context in which these regional discussions are to take place. The Middle East does not operate in a vacuum, and so it will also be important to work for the removal of nuclear weapons currently deployed in neighbouring states and develop a new regional and international security framework which is free from weapons of mass destruction.
9. The Helsinki Conference is asked to recognise that many of the obstacles to peace in the region stem from historic grievances stoked by contemporary injustices. In pursuing the goal of a peaceful, secure Middle East without WMD it will be crucial to address and resolve these problems and ensure that such injustices do not continue.