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Nuclear Weapons Convention |
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In 1996, the International Court of Justice declared that to use, or threaten to use,
nuclear weapons is illegal in almost all conceivable circumstances. Yet no legislation currently
outlaws these weapons. Legally-binding, international agreements to ban other weapons of mass
destruction such as chemical and biological weapons have already been agreed. It is vital for the
security of our world that a similar agreement, a Nuclear Weapons Convention, to ban nuclear
weapons is negotiated. Without this, nuclear proliferation and nuclear weapons use are ever increasing
dangers. Now is the time to outlaw nuclear weapons worldwide.
The nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty (NPT) requires both
nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation.
Until recently, it has
been relatively successful in terms
of non-proliferation – at the time
the Treaty was introduced there
was widespread fear that dozens of
countries would pursue nuclear
weapons, and this has not
happened. But there has been little
success in achieving progress on
disarmament and this failure is now
increasing the danger of
proliferation.
To deal with this
problem, in 1997 a draft treaty for
the abolition of nuclear weapons
was drawn up by an international
team of legal, scientific, disarmament
and negotiation experts. This model
Nuclear Weapons Convention was
submitted by Costa Rica to the
United Nations for discussion. Unlike
the NPT, the Convention provides a
concrete framework to accomplish a
nuclear weapons-free world with
practical detail on difficult issues such
as verification and inspection.
General obligations
The Model Nuclear Weapons
Convention prohibits development,
testing, production, stockpiling,
transfer, use, and threat of use of
nuclear weapons. States possessing
nuclear weapons will be required to
destroy their arsenals according to a
series of phases. The Convention
also prohibits the production of
weapons-usable fissile material and
requires delivery vehicles to be
destroyed or converted to make
them non-nuclear capable.
Phases for elimination
The Convention outlines a series
of five phases for the elimination
of nuclear weapons:
- take nuclear weapons off alert,
- remove weapons from
deployment
- remove nuclear warheads from
their delivery vehicles
- disable the warheads, removing
and disfiguring the ‘pits’ and
- place the fissile material under
international control.
In the initial phases, the U.S. and
Russia are required to make the
deepest cuts in their nuclear
arsenals.
The abolition of nuclear weapons is essential for human survival and
sustainability; the current situation of planned indefinite retention
of their nuclear weapons by the NWS [nuclear weapon states] feeds
proliferation, is unstable, dangerous and unsustainable.’
Securing our Survival (SOS) The Case for a Nuclear Weapons Convention, 2007
Other indiscriminate
weapons
International treaties have already
banned other weapons of mass
destruction and other categories of
indiscriminate weapons. Land
mines also indiscriminately injure
and kill civilians and combatants
alike but an international Mine Ban
Treaty entered into force in 1999.
Other weapons of mass destruction
have been banned by the Biological
Weapons Convention (1975) and
the Chemical Weapons Convention
(1997). Enough political will means
negotiations can be concluded quite
rapidly. The Chemical Weapons
Convention required ten years of
negotiations to build up confidence
in the treaty and its verification
processes. The Mine Ban Treaty
was negotiated in just a year.
Widespread support
In recent years there have been
increasing calls for a Nuclear
Weapons Convention. In a 2007 YouGov poll 64% of the
UK population said the government
should support a Nuclear
Weapons Convention. In 2006, 125
out of 181 governments voted in
the UN General Assembly for
negotiations to commence
immediately, including nuclear armed
China, India and Pakistan.
 The International Campaign
to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
(ICAN)
ICAN is a new
international campaign to promote the
Nuclear Weapons Convention.
Initiated by the International
Physicians for the Prevention of
Nuclear War (IPPNW), ICAN was
launched at the 2007 NPT Preparatory
Committee meeting in Vienna.
CND
has joined with Medact – the British
section of IPPNW – and other organisations to launch the
campaign in the UK. Many other groups all
over the world are launching the
campaign in their own countries, with
particular support from Mayors for
Peace.
A revised Nuclear Weapons
Convention with an updated report
Securing our Survival (SOS): The Case for a
Nuclear Weapons Convention was submitted
by Costa Rica and Malaysia to the
recent NPT PrepCom.
Negotiations must start now
The UK government has recently
reaffirmed its commitment to multilateral
nuclear disarmament through
good faith negotiations as required by
the NPT. To honour its commitments
CND calls on the government to
cancel any preparations for a new
nuclear weapons system to replace
Trident after 2024 and to work to progress
multilateral negotiations with the
aim of achieving implementation of a
Nuclear Weapons Convention by 2020.
Sign the No to Trident Replacement – Yes to a Nuclear Weapons Convention
petition.
Sign online or download a printable version
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