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Oslo: Historic global conference prepares ground for new initiative towards ban treaty
an article by Press release from the International Campaign Against Nuclear weapons (ICAN)
The historic Oslo Conference on the Humanitarian
Impact of Nuclear Weapons has concluded with the
announcement of a follow-up meeting to be hosted
by Mexico. A wide range of states and
organisations agreed that an understanding of the
global humanitarian consequences of nuclear
detonations should be the starting point for
urgent action to ban and eliminate nuclear
weapons.
Photo: ICAN
click on photo to enlarge
At the meeting hosted by Norwegian Foreign
Minister Espen Barth Eide, around 130 states,
several UN agencies—including OCHA, UNDP and UNHCR
—as well as the international Red Cross and Red
Crescent movement, and ICAN, presented their
findings on the environmental, developmental, and
health consequences of nuclear detonations.
They concluded that no international response plan
could effectively be put in place to respond to
such an event. As the facts and evidence sank in,
many states expressed their recognition of a
shared responsibility to act to prevent any
accidental or intentional use of these weapons of
mass suffering.
The announcement by Mexico to build on the
Norwegian initiative by hosting a further meeting
provides a new platform from which to consolidate
the humanitarian arguments and to engage all
states in a constructive dialogue to outlaw and
eliminate nuclear weapons.
Dr Rebecca Johnson, ICAN Co-Chair said: “This
Conference has shown that any use of nuclear
armaments would cause mass suffering, with
calculations of climate disruption and famine in
non-nuclear as well as nuclear-armed countries.
This global impact makes it the responsibility –
and right – of everyone to take action to stop
this from happening. The P5 have missed an
opportunity for dialogue here, but it has not
stopped countries moving forward. On the contrary,
Mexico’s welcome decision to host a further
meeting on this issue recognises that the nuclear
weapon free countries have an important role to
play.”
Thomas Nash, ICAN Steering Group member, said:
“This conference is a new beginning towards the
elimination of nuclear weapons. It is the first
time states have come together to consider the
humanitarian effects of nuclear weapons. 130
countries have chosen to confront the horror of
these weapons and have realised that far from
being powerless to do anything about it, they can
and must take responsibility for putting in place
a long overdue international ban.”
Dr Bob Mtonga, ICAN Steering Group member and
physician from Zambia: “This Conference has shown
us that the countries that have renounced nuclear
weapons and concluded regional Nuclear Weapons
Free Zones, such as Africa and Latin America, are
providing important moral leadership to carry
forward international efforts to free the world of
nuclear weapons and prevent the global public
health disaster that their use would create.”
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LATEST READER COMMENT:
'THE WORLD IS OVER-ARMED AND PEACE IS UNDER-FUNDED'
30 August 2012 — The following opinion piece by Secretary-General BAN Ki-moon has appeared in leading newspapers in Argentina, Bangladesh, Burundi, China, Germany, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Malaysia, The Philippines, Republic of Korea, Russia, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine and European weekly publications and has been translated into 10 languages.
Last month, competing interests prevented agreement on a much-needed treaty that would have reduced the appalling human cost of the poorly regulated international arms trade. Meanwhile, nuclear disarmament efforts remain stalled, despite strong and growing global popular sentiment in support of this cause.
The failure of these negotiations and this month's anniversaries of the atomic bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki provide a good opportunity to explore what has gone wrong, why disarmament and arms control have proven so difficult to achieve, and how the world community can get back on track towards these vitally important goals.
Many defence establishments now recognize that security means far more than protecting borders. Grave security concerns can arise as a result of demographic trends, chronic poverty, economic inequality, environmental degradation, pandemic diseases, organized crime, repressive governance and other developments no state can control alone. Arms can't address such concerns.
Yet there has been a troubling lag between recognizing these new security challenges, and launching new policies to address them. National budget priorities still tend to reflect the old paradigms. Massive military spending and new investments in modernizing nuclear weapons have left the world over-armed -- and peace under-funded.
Last year, global military spending reportedly exceeded $1.7 trillion – more than $4.6 billion a day, which alone is almost twice the UN's budget for an entire year. This largesse includes billions more for modernizing nuclear arsenals decades into the future.
This level of military spending is hard to explain in a post-Cold War world and amidst a global financial crisis. Economists would call this an "opportunity cost". . ...more.
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