Middle Eastern States Are Back on The Path to A WMD Free Zone

Viewpoint by Sergio Duarte

The writer is President of Pugwash and former UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs.

Photo: Twenty-five years since the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize shared by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat – who negotiated and signed the Oslo Peace Accords – peace continues to evade the Middle East, Palestine-Israel relations remain tense and a Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Zone in the region is nowhere in sight. The picture shows Rabin (left) shaking hands with Arafat (right) at the World Economic Forum in Davos, 2001 | Credit: CC BY-SA World Economic Forum.

NEW YORK (IDN) – The establishment of a nuclear weapon free zone in the region of the Middle East has been one of the most frustrating undertakings in the field of arms control and non-proliferation at the United Nations. Over the past few decades it has been possible for States in other regions of the globe to successfully negotiate and adopt treaties that establish nuclear weapon free zones that greatly enhance peace and security. [2019-12-01-23] ARABIC | GERMAN | ITALIAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | TURKISH

Australia’s ‘Quit Nukes’ Campaign Targets Superannuation Funds

By Neena Bhandari

Photo (L-R): Quit Nukes Director Margaret Peril, Australian Ethical Acting CEO Steve Gibbs, ICAN Australia Director Gem Romuld. Source: Quit Nukes.

SYDNEY (IDN) – A new campaign is encouraging Australians to urge their superannuation funds to exclude nuclear weapons producers from their investments, consistent with the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which has been ratified by 33 states and needs additional 17 ratifications to become enforceable under international law – 90 days after the fiftieth instrument of ratification. [2019-11-22 | 22] JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | MALAY | THAI

Anxiety Looms Over the 10th NPT Review Conference Next Year

Viewpoint by Sergio Duarte

The writer is President of Pugwash. Former UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs.

Image: Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones (Blue); Nuclear weapons states (Red); Nuclear sharing (Orange); Neither, but NPT (Lime green). CC BY-SA 3.0

NEW YORK (IDN) – The contentious start of the 74th Session of the First Committee of the General Assembly last October in New York was a harbinger of the difficulties to be faced in the run-up to the forthcoming 2020 Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and in United Nations multilateral organs devoted to disarmament. [2019-11-21 | 21] CHINESE | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | PORTUGUESE

Growing Anxiety About the Crucial 2020 NPT Review Conference

By Santo D. Banerjee

Photo: Sculpture depicting St. George slaying the dragon. The dragon is created from fragments of Soviet SS-20 and United States Pershing nuclear missiles. UN Photo/Milton Grant.

NEW YORK (IDN) – The survivors of atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Mayors of the two Japanese cities whose inhabitants have experienced first-hand the mind boggling cruelty of nuclear weapons, representatives of other civil society organizations as well as the United Nations are increasingly concerned about the fate of non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament. [2019-10-27 | 20] JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | RUSSIAN | SPANISH | SWEDISH

Nuclear Abolition Exhibition Boosts Japan-Kazakh Relations

By Katsuhiro Asagiri

Ribbon-cutting ceremony opens ‘Everything You Treasure…’ exhibition (from left to right): Sapar Akhmetov, member of the Mazhilis (lower house) of the Parliament of Kazakhstan, Amerkhan Rakhimzhanov, Director of the Library of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan – Elbassy, Kuanysh Sultanov, Chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Kazakhstan under the First President of Kazakhstan, Tatsuhiko Kasai, Ambassador of Japan to Kazakhstan, Bizhanova Gulnara Kadyrzhankyzy, member of the Mazhilis of Parliament of Kazakhstan, Hirotsugu Terasaki, Director General of Peace and Global Issues of the SGI. Photo credit: Katsuhiro Asagiri | IDN-INPS.

NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan (IDN) – 2019 marks the 30th anniversary of the end of nuclear weapons testing in Semipalatinsk, the primary testing venue for the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons, the 10th anniversary of the entry into force of the Treaty on a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Central Asia, and the ratification by Kazakhstan as the 26th country to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. [2019-10-17 | 19] JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | NORWEGIAN

New Study Warns of Devastating Global Consequences of an India-Pakistan Nuclear War

By Daniel Strain *

Image: A map showing the changes in the productivity of ecosystems around the world in the second year after a nuclear war between India and Pakistan. Regions in brown would experience steep declines in plant growth, while regions in green could see increases. (Credit: Nicole Lovenduski and Lili Xia). Source: University of Colorado Boulder.

BOULDER, Colorado, USA (IDN) – A nuclear war between India and Pakistan could, over the span of less than a week, kill 50-125 million people—more than the death toll during all six years of World War II, according to new research. [2019-10-05 |18] BAHASA | HINDI | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF

UN Chief Warns of Nuclear Disarmament Going Reverse

By Shanta Roy

Photo: Secretary-General António Guterres (fourth from left) and Tijjani Muhammad-Bande (left), President of the seventy-fourth session of the General Assembly, attend the high-level plenary meeting of the General Assembly to commemorate and promote the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. Credit: UN Photo/Rick Bajornas. 26 September 2019.

NEW YORK (IDN) – As the United Nations commemorated its annual International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons September 26, Secretary-General António Guterres underlined two political realities facing the world community. [2019-09-29 |17] JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | MALAY | TURKISH

Concerns About Military Build-up in Iceland

By Lowana Veal

Photo: Protest in Reykjavik organised by peace, LGBTQ and women’s groups during U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence on September 4, 2019. Credit: Lowana Veal | IDN-INPS.

REYKJAVIK (IDN) – It was widely believed that the U.S. military left Iceland in 2006 when they abandoned the base adjoining Iceland’s international airport at Keflavik on the southwest tip of the island.

But recent developments, in particular the visit of U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence to Iceland in early September and perhaps a previous visit of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in February 2019, reveal other motives. [2019-09-14 | 16] JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | SWEDISH

Special UN Meeting Calls for Entry into Force of Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

By J Nastranis

Photo: CTBTO Executive Secretary Lassina Zerbo addressing UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on 9 September 2019 to commemorate and promote the International Day against Nuclear Tests (29 August). Credit: CTBTO

NEW YORK (IDN) – Ten years ago, on December 2, 2009, the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly declared August 29 the International Day against Nuclear Tests by unanimously adopting resolution 64/35. The resolution was initiated by the Republic of Kazakhstan, together with a large number of sponsors and cosponsors with a view to commemorating the closure of the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test site on August 29, 1991. [2019-09-13 | 15] ARABIC | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF

UN Denies Endorsement of India in Nuclear Suppliers Group

By Shanta Roy

Image credit: Defence Squad | YouTube

NEW YORK (IDN) – India, Pakistan and Israel, three countries armed with nuclear weapons, are not recognized as nuclear weapon states by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) – a “privilege” bestowed only on the world’s five major nuclear powers: the U.S., UK, Russia, France and China, which are also members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) [2019-09-05 | 14] GERMAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF