Preparing for 2020 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Review Conference

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) – The States party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) convene every five years to review the implementation of this nuclear disarmament regime in three sessions. In run-up to the 2020 NPT Review Conference, the first session of the Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) will meet from May 2-12 in Vienna.

The Austrian capital, which serves as the associate headquarters of the UN, has come to play a historic role in the world body’s efforts for a legal treaty aimed at ushering in a nuclear-weapons-free world. In December 2014, it was the venue of the third Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons – after Nayarit (Mexico) in February 2014 and Oslo in March 2013 – which paved the path to the ‘Austrian Pledge’, also known as the ‘Humanitarian Pledge’, to “stigmatize, prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons”. [P 02] JAPANESE TEXT VERSiON PDF

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Preparing for 2020 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Review Conference

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) – The States party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) convene every five years to review the implementation of this nuclear disarmament regime in three sessions. In run-up to the 2020 NPT Review Conference, the first session of the Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) will meet from May 2-12 in Vienna.

The Austrian capital, which serves as the associate headquarters of the UN, has come to play a historic role in the world body’s efforts for a legal treaty aimed at ushering in a nuclear-weapons-free world. In December 2014, it was the venue of the third Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons – after Nayarit (Mexico) in February 2014 and Oslo in March 2013 – which paved the path to the ‘Austrian Pledge’, also known as the ‘Humanitarian Pledge’, to “stigmatize, prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons”. [P 02] JAPANESE TEXT VERSiON PDF

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Korean Peninsula: Conflict Prevention ‘Our Collective Priority’ But ‘the Onus Is on the DPRK

By António Guterres

Following are excerpts from UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the Security Council on Non-Proliferation/DPRK on April 28, 2017. – The Editor

NEW YORK (IDN) – The situation on the Korean Peninsula is one of the longest-standing and most serious issues before the United Nations. The Security Council first adopted a resolution on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) nuclear issue in 1993, when it urged the DPRK not to withdraw from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Twenty-four years later, and despite extensive efforts, the challenge has defied resolution.

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U.S. to Test Launch an Unarmed Minuteman III ICBM

By J C Suresh

TORONTO (IDN) – At a time of extraordinary tension between the U.S. and North Korea, with each side flexing its military muscle and making implicit and explicit threats, the U.S. has announced the test launch of an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on April 26.

Commenting the announcement, David Krieger, President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF), said: “When it comes to missile testing, the U.S. is operating with a clear double standard: It views its own tests as justified and useful, while it views the tests of North Korea as threatening and destabilizing.”

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UN Institute Pleads for Global Nuclear Non-Proliferation

国連の研究所、グローバルな核不拡散体制強化を訴える

【ジュネーブIDN＝ジャムシェッド・バルーア】

国連の枠内で独立して軍縮に関する研究を行っている国連軍縮研究所（UNIDIR：ジュネーブ）は、「広島・長崎への原爆投下以来、核兵器が使用されていないからといって、そのこと自体が、今後も核兵器がほぼ使用されないと考える根拠にはなりえない。」と警告している。

１９４５年８月６日と９日に米国が原爆を投下した広島と長崎は、核兵器の使用が人間に及ぼす恐るべき影響を今日に伝える日本の被爆都市であり、こうした大量破壊兵器が再び使われるようなことがあれば残虐な帰結が待っていると警鐘を鳴らし続けている。

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U.S. Accused of ‘Blithely Ignoring’ NPT Obligations

By Santo D. Banerjee

 

NEW YORK (IDN) – Veterans For Peace (VFP) has strongly criticised the U.S. refusal to take part in negotiations at the United Nations to ban nuclear weapons and accused it of “efforts to derail the ongoing” talks to “reach an agreement on a treaty to ban nuclear weapons.”

VFP believes that it would be “diplomatically more prudent” to use the UN talks “as an opportunity to engage Iran and North Korea in discussions to determine if there is some common ground on which to proceed and lessen tensions in the Middle East and the Far East.”

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FN-institutt ber om global ikke-spredning av atomvåpen

Av Jamshed Baruah

GENEVA (IDN) – «Mangelen på bruk av atomvåpen etter Hiroshima og Nagasaki kan ikke i seg selv tolkes som bevis for at sannsynligheten for en detonasjonshendelse er minimal», advarer FNs institutt for nedrustningsforskning (UNIDIR), et autonomt institutt innen FN, basert i Genève.

De japanske byene Hiroshima og Nagasaki, hvor USA slapp atombomber den 6. og 9. august 1945, omfatter den avskyelige humanitære virkningen av atomvåpenbruk, advarsler om de brutale konsekvensene om slike masseødeleggelsesvåpen noensinne bli anvendt igjen.

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UN Institute Pleads for Global Nuclear Non-Proliferation – Arabic

منظمة الأمم المتحدة تناشد العالم بالحد من انتشار الأسلحة النووية

كتبه جامشيد بارواه

جنيف (IDN) – حذرت مؤسسة الأمم المتحدة لبحث نزع السلاح (UNIDIR) بأن “لا يمكن أبداً أن نفسر عدم استخدام الأسلحة النووية منذ هيروشيما وناجازاكي يعتبر دليل على أن إمكانية تفجير قنبلة نووية أخرى قليلة”، وهي مؤسسة مستقلة تابعة للأمم المتحدة مقرها في جنيف.

المدينتين اليابانيتين هيروشيما وناجازاكي، اللاتي سقطت عليهما قنابل نووية أمريكية في 6 و9 أغسطس، 1945، تجسدان التأثير الإنساني البغيض لاستخدام الأسلحة النووية، وتحذران من العواقب القاسية التي ستحدث في حالة استخدام أسلحة الدمار الشامل تلك مرة أخرى.

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Eradicating North Korea’s Nuclear Bombs

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – There are 29 states which have at one time or another set about becoming nuclear weapons powers or have explored the possibility. Most have failed or drawn back. Only the U.S., Russia, France, UK, China, India, Israel, Pakistan and North Korea have crossed the threshold. But only the first five have long range, nuclear-tipped, missiles. North Korea wants to walk in their footsteps.

The common belief that when a state has decided to do so it goes for it as fast as it can is wrong. Sweden, Japan, Algeria, Australia, Italy, Yugoslavia, West Germany, Egypt, Iraq, Switzerland, Syria, Brazil, Argentina, Taiwan, South Korea, Norway, South Africa, Pakistan and India all sought to acquire nuclear weapons but their pace and commitment were different.

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UN Institute Pleads for Global Nuclear Non-Proliferation

By Jamshed Baruah

GENEVA (IDN) – “The lack of nuclear weapons use since Hiroshima and Nagasaki cannot on its own be interpreted as evidence that the likelihood of a detonation event is minimal,” warns the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), an autonomous institute within the United Nations based in Geneva.

The Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, on which the United States dropped atomic bombs on August 6 and 9, 1945, embody the abhorrent humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons use, warning of the brutal consequences should such weapons of mass destruction be ever deployed again. [P 01] ARABIC | NORWEGIAN |  JAPANESE TEXT VERSON PDF

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