A2000 Nuclear Weapons Convention Working Group

A2000 Nuclear Weapons Convention Working Group

Report

2003 – 2004

Alyn Ware – working group convener

Contents:

1) Introduction, 2) Work done to promote a NWC, 3) Campaign ideas, 4) Working Group functioning,

5) Documents

1) Introduction

The A2000 NWC Working Group was established in order to provide a forum for communication and collaboration on specific initiatives on a nuclear weapons convention. The group, which comprises 34 individual members, has not been operative for some time, although individual members have been active in support of a NWC.

Prior to the A2000 Annual General Meeting, the NWC Working Group convener contacted all members in order to ascertain work done to promote a NWC and to request campaign ideas.

2) Work done to promote a NWC

Meetings – presentations

The Nuclear Weapons Convention has been the subject – or a key focus – in a number of meetings and presentations over the past year including:

• Compliance within a Nuclear Abolition Regime, panel at the 2003 NPT Prep Com with speakers Mayor Akiba, Jozef Goldblat, Regina Hagen and Alyn Ware

• Legal responses to Nuclear Threats from Terrorism, Proliferation and War: presentation by Alyn Ware for the 4th International Conference of Chief Justices of the World, Lucknow, December 2003

• Presentations to a number of law schools in the USA on nuclear weapons and international law including the NWC by LCNP members

• Abolition through a Nuclear Weapons Convention, presentation by Merav Datan to the first international conference of the Parliamentary Network for Nuclear Disarmament in Vancouver, November 2003.

• Nuclear disarmament initiatives, presentation by Alyn Ware to a cross-party roundtable meeting of parliamentarians in India, December 2003

• Nuclear abolition and the NWC, presentation by Alyn Ware at the World Social Forum in India.

Articles

The NWC has been the subject – or a key focus – in a number of published articles over the past year including:

• Rule of Force or Rule of Law? Legal Responses to Nuclear Threats from Terrorism, Proliferation, and War, in Seattle Journal for Social Justice, Winter 2003-2004.

Security and Survival: The Case for a Nuclear Weapons Convention.

This book, edited by Merav Datan and Alyn Ware, includes discussion about a nuclear weapons convention and contains the Model Nuclear Weapons Convention which was drafted under the leadership of the Lawyers’ Committee on Nuclear Policy, submitted to the United Nations by Costa Rica, and circulated as United Nations document A/C.1/52/7. Members of the working group have been distributing the book at various international meetings and to key government officials, academics, scientists, parliamentarians, lawyers, disarmament activists…

See

Or text of NWC)

Nuclear Weapons Convention Monitor.

This periodical, edited by Merav Datan and published by IPPNW, includes discussion of issues relating to the NWC. Three issues have been produced, the most recent being a report on a roundtable discussion using the NWC hosted by The Simons Foundation

and held at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in Ottawa, Canada, January 10- 11, 2002.

See

Or

Resolutions

The NWC is the subject of a resolution adopted every year at the United Nations General Assembly.

See for text of the 2003 resolution, for voting results.

The NWC is also the subject of an Early Day Motion in the UK House of Commons a Draft Resolution in the US House of Representatives.

NPT Working Paper

In 2000, Malaysia and Costa Rica introduced a working paper on the NWC to the 2000 NPT Review Conference.

Consultations are underway on an updated working paper for the 2005 NPT Review Conference.

Mayors for Peace

Following consultations with NWC working Group members, the Mayors for Peace adopted a campaign strategy focusing on the achievement of a nuclear weapons convention by 2010 and its full implementation by 2020.

3) Campaign ideas

Model United Nations negotiations on a NWC

The Mayors for Peace have proposed that the Model United Nations Association (MUNA) be encouraged to hold an international NWC model negotiation session in 2005. The A2000 NWC Working Group has been requested to draft an abridged version of the Model NWC which could be used as background for such a negotiation session.

NWC campaign proposal

The A2000 Global Council has discussed a proposal for mayors, cities and governments to sign on to the Model NWC indicating their support for this as the starting point for negotiations between countries. There is also a proposal that an international boycott be placed on countries which refuse to sign the Model NWC by a specified date (in 2005). This campaign would use an abridged version of the Model NWC, possibly the same one as proposed for the Model UN negotiations.

4) NWC Working Group functioning

The NWC working group has one convener (Alyn Ware) and one key resource person (Merav Datan – formerly a co-convener). Alyn does not have the time to fulfill the administrative responsibilities for the working group. We thus require a co-convener in order to reactivate the working group.

For new people to join the working group, send an email message to . To check if you are a member, go to

5) Background documents

IPPNW website ( contains Security and Survival as well as the NWC Monitor. Lawyers’ Committee on Nuclear Policy has a more complete compilation of nuclear weapons convention documents (resolutions, statements, articles…) on its website at