Disarmament in Uncertain Times Discussed in Reykjavik

By Lowana Veal

REYKJAVIK (IDN) – With tension rapidly escalating between the United States and Russia – and indeed between these countries and others – a seminar on disarmament held in parallel with the 14th NATO Conference on Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iceland came at an appropriate time. [P 12]  JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | NORWEGIAN | SWEDISH

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UN High-Level Meeting Reflects Broad Support for Total Nuclear Disarmament

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – The United Nations has pursued the goal of nuclear disarmament since the adoption of the very first General Assembly resolution in 1946. But aware that countries possessing nuclear weapons have well-funded, long-term plans to modernize their nuclear arsenals, in 2013 the UN declared September 26 as the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. [P 11] JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | SPANISH | THAI

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Japan Considers Ways of Shedding the Straitjacket and Go the Whole Hog for Nuclear Abolition

By Katsuhiro Asagiri

TOKYO (IDN) – Japan’s profound interest in the international community’s efforts to help usher in a world free of nuclear weapons was underlined in the run-up to the commemoration of the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons on September 26, which was observed first time in 2014 in accordance with a decision of the UN General Assembly. [P 10] ITALIAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | SPANISH

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Calls for Making Global Nuclear Test Ban Legally Binding

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | VIENNA | ASTANA (IDN) – The Kazakh Minister of Foreign Affairs Kairat Abdrakhmanov and CTBTO Executive Secretary Dr Lassina Zerbo have called on all States Signatories “to spare no effort to ensure that the nuclear test ban becomes legally binding by achieving the entry into force” of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) in limbo for 22 years. [P 09] JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | MALAY | NORWEGIAN

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73 Years On, a Nuclear-Weapons-Free World Remains a Mirage

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN (IDN) – Nobel Peace Prize laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel and Buddhist philosopher Daisaku Ikeda recall a quote from Martin Luther King Jr – “We are always on the threshold of a new dawn” – and aver that the adoption of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in July 2017 is such a ‘threshold’.

In a joint appeal ‘To the Youth of the World’, released to the media and wider public in Rome, and handed over to Pope Francis, they note that the Treaty “is an international legal instrument that establishes the absolute illegality” of nuclear weapons. [P 08] JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | NORWEGIAN

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UN Chief’s Disarmament Agenda Faces Rough Waters

By Jayantha Dhanapala

The UN Secretary-General’s new Disarmament Agenda entitled, Securing Our Common Future, “seems unlikely to secure our common future with the present actors,” writes Jayantha Dhanapala, a retired Ambassador of Sri Lanka and a former UN Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament. “We will either have to wait for a change of actors or search among the debris of failed negotiations for a fresh start. But that depends on the unpredictable Trump and Kim Jong Un,” he adds. [P 07] ITALIAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF

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ICAN Expects Nuclear Ban Treaty to Enter into Force in 2019

By Neena Bhandari

SYDNEY (IDN) – As the world witnesses an increase in nuclear sabre-rattling in 2018, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) is supporting global public movement to put pressure on governments to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. ICAN’s Treaty Coordinator Tim Wright (TW) spoke to IDN’s Neena Bhandari (NB) about disarmament, raising awareness about the risk and consequences of nuclear weapons, and why the world needs a nuclear ban treaty more than ever before. [P 06] ARABIC | CHINESE  | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | KOREAN | NORWEGIAN | SWEDISH

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Nuclear Weapon States’ Long Arm Seen Behind Deferral of Landmark UN Conference

By Alyn Ware*

NEW YORK (IDN) – May 14, 2018 was supposed to see the opening at the United Nations of a three-day High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament, scheduled to discuss “effective nuclear disarmament measures to achieve the total elimination of nuclear weapons, including, in particular, on a comprehensive convention on nuclear weapons.”

The UN General Assembly decided five years ago to hold such a conference in 2018, following a series of annual, one-day, high-level meetings at the United Nations. [P 05] GERMAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION VERSION PDF

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Experts Predict Vast Ramifications of US Pullout From Iran Nuclear Deal

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – President Donald Trump’s decision to abandon the Iran Nuclear Deal is fraught with multiple imponderables, according to experts. It’s “a costly mistake that can hold wide-ranging ramifications beyond its strictly nuclear parameters,” declared the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize winner Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.

The decision “not only blows up a functioning agreement, it also deals a significant blow to U.S. credibility as a partner in contract and diplomacy,” warned the 2017 Nobel Peace laureate ICAN (the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons). [P 04] ARABIC |  HINDI | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION VERSION  PDF

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Faith Communities Urge Geneva Conference to Pave the Path to a Nuclear-Weapons- Free World

By Jamshed Baruah

GENEVA (IDN) – Diverse faith-based organizations and individuals are appealing to States gathered at the UN in Geneva to spare the world a nuclear catastrophe and foster sustainable development for the good of humanity affirming moral and ethical imperatives.

Twenty groups and individuals from different faiths, including Christian, Quaker, Muslim and Hindu traditions and Soka Gakkai International (SGI) tabled an interfaith statement on April 25 as one of the civil society presentations during the second session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2020 NPT Review Conference at the UN Office in Geneva. [P 03] ITALIAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION  PDF

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