Trump’s Nuclear Twitter Menacing Ahead of UN Talks in March

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) – Ahead of the inauguration of Donald Trump as 45th President of the United States on January 20, analysts are far from certain whether he would take to policies that reduce nuclear dangers or resort to actions resulting in a suicidal arms race.

The guessing game is taking place against the backdrop of the United Nations General Assembly having confirmed that beginning March 2017, it would hold a conference open to all member states, to negotiate a “legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination”. The conference to be held at UN headquarters in New York will be divided into two sessions: from March 27 to 31 and from June 15 to July 7. [P33] JAPANESE TEXT VERSON PDF

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UN Paves The Way For Conference on Treaty Eliminating Nukes

By Jamshed Baruah

GENEVA | NEW YORK  (IDN) – The United Nations General Assembly has confirmed that beginning March 2017, it would hold a conference open to all member states, to negotiate a “legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination”. The conference to be held at UN headquarters in New York will be divided into two sessions: from March 27 to 31 and from June 15 to July 7.

“This historic decision heralds an end to two decades of paralysis in multilateral nuclear disarmament efforts, and comes at a time when the two major nuclear-armed states are engaging in nuclear-sabre rattling,” noted the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). [P32] ARABIC (PDF) | GERMAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSON PDF | THAI

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Youth Campaign for a Nuke-Free World at Nagasaki Conference

By Katsuhiro Asagiri

NAGASAKI (IDN) – A Forum of Youth Communicators, launched by Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida in 2013, has urged people around the world to realize that nuclear weapons do not only absorb huge amounts of money but also pose a serious threat to international peace and security, global environment, and the very survival of humankind.

The Youth Communicators met in the Japanese city of Nagasaki, which suffered atomic bombings along with Hiroshima seventy-one years ago. They pledged to communicate the pressing need to move toward a nuclear-weapons-free world, and proposed a series of steps to achieve the objective. [P31] ARABIC (PDF) | BAHASA |  GERMAN | ITALIAN |   JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | KOREAN TEXT VERSION PDF | MALAY | PERSIAN (PDF) | SWEDISH | THAI |URDU

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Nuclear Disarmament Needs A Fresh Start

Viewpoint by Kim Won-soo

Kim Won-soo is United Nations High Representative for Disarmament Affairs. This is a slightly abridged version of his Opening Remarks at the 26th United Nations Conference on Disarmament Issues in Nagasaki, Japan on December 12, 2016.

NAGASAKI (IDN-INPS) – This year marks the sixtieth anniversary of Japan’s membership of the United Nations. For six decades, Japan has been one of the strongest contributors to the multilateral system and to disarmament.

For this, the United Nations thanks you.

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Security Council Stresses Need to Halt Proliferation of WMDs

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – Expressing concern over the threat of terrorism and the risk that non-State actors may acquire or use nuclear, biological or chemical weapons, the United Nations Security Council has called on all countries to establish national controls to prevent proliferation of such weapons as well as their means of delivery, according to UN News.

In a resolution adopted on December 15, 2016 the 15-member Council also reiterated the need to continue to strengthen ongoing cooperation among various intergovernmental bodies and entities concerning terrorist groups such as Al-Qaida, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh), as well as counter-terrorism, through enhanced information sharing, coordination and technical assistance.

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Australia’s No to Prohibit-Nukes Resolution Triggers Debate

By Neena Bhandari

SYDNEY (IDN) – As the curtain falls on 2016, the year that marked the fifth anniversary of Fukushima and the 30th anniversary of Chernobyl nuclear disasters, sending a sombre reminder of the devastating humanitarian and environmental consequences of these weapons of mass destruction, the resolve to free the world of nuclear weapons is stronger than ever before.

The United Nations Resolution A/C.1/71/L.41, which calls for negotiations on a “legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading toward their total elimination”, was adopted at the 71st session of the First Committee of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on October 27, 2016 with 123 members, including nuclear North Korea, voting in favour of taking forward the multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations, 38 voted against and 16 abstained. [P30] ARABIC (PDF) | BHASA | HINDI | JAPANESE TEXT VERSON PDF | MALAY | NORWEGIAN | PERSIAN (PDF) |  PORTUGUESE |  SPANISH | THAI | TURKISH

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Africa Pushes for a 2017 Ban on Nuclear Weapons

By Annie DuPre and Noel Stott

PRETORIA (IDN-INPS | ISS South Africa) – On October 27, the First Committee of the United Nations (UN) passed L.41: Taking forward multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations. The resolution calls for negotiations to take place next year on a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, and lead towards their total elimination. It was passed with 123 votes in favour, 38 against and 16 abstentions.

This initiative has been called historic by analysts such as the former Canadian Ambassador for Disarmament to the UN, civil society groupings and international organisations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross — underscored by the belief that as long as nuclear weapons exist, humankind will risk facing the catastrophic consequences of a nuclear war.

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Behind World Court Dismissal of Marshall Islands’ Case

By Joyeeta Banerjee & Rajdeep Banerjee

MUMBAI (IDN-INPS | The Statesman) – In the first ever nuclear disarmament challenge brought before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) by any member state, the ICJ recently in the case Regarding Obligations Concerning Negotiations Relating to Cessation of the Nuclear Arms Race and to Nuclear Disarmament dismissed the suits on a preliminary issue. It was also for the first time the World Court found that it has no jurisdiction on the sole basis of the non-existence of a dispute between the parties.

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UN Chief Decries ‘Chronic Stalemate’ Over Disarmament

By Rodney Reynolds

NEW YORK (IDN) – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has been unwavering in his longstanding campaign to usher in “a world without nuclear weapons”, has expressed strong disappointment over “a deep division” among the UN’s 193 member states over the future of multilateral disarmament.

On the one hand, nuclear-weapon States, along with many of their allies, argue that they have taken steps to reduce their arsenals, he said. [P29] ARABIC (PDF) | BHASA | GERMAN | HINDI | JAPANESE TEXT VERSON PDF |  MALAY | NORWEGIAN |  PERSIAN (PDF) |  PORTUGUESE | SPANISH | THAI | TURKISH  

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Seeking Nuclear Disarmament in Dangerous Times

 Viewpoint by Alice Slater

Alice Slater is the UN NGO Representative for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and serves on the Coordinating Committee of World Beyond War.

NEW YORK (IDN) – UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has championed efforts for nations to make good on their pledges to abolish nuclear weapons. In 2009 he published a five-point proposal for nuclear disarmament, urging nuclear weapons states in particular to fulfill their promises under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to negotiate for the total elimination of nuclear weapons as well as other complementary steps to that end such as banning missiles and space weapons.

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• 2. Mayors for Peace Say the Danger of Nuclear War Is Real and Growing
• 3. Middle East Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zone, Long Elusive, is Making Progress, say Experts
• 4. Die Eliminierung von Interkontinentalraketen würde die Chancen eines globalen nuklearen Holocaust erheblich verringern
• 5. Elimination of ICBMs Would Greatly Reduce the Chances of a Global Nuclear Holocaust