A UN working group report recommending a legally-binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons be negotiated next year has been hailed as the “highest point” in a campaign to outlaw nuclear weapons on humanitarian grounds, according to Peter Prove, international affairs director of the World Council of Churches.
The final report, which was adopted on 19th August after two-thirds of the 100 countries represented on the Open Ended Working Group on Nuclear Disarmament gave it their support, also recommended that the negotiations should be open to all states and include representatives of civil society. It will be presented to the UN General Assembly in October with indications that it will result in a resolution to start negotiations for a nuclear weapon ban treaty.
Mr Prove described the development as “the highest point so far in a growing wave of support for outlawing nuclear weapons on humanitarian grounds”. “Faith-based advocacy has contributed to this effort, and will be greatly needed to help bring the will of the majority, the rule of law, and the welfare of all people and of the whole creation to bear on nuclear-armed countries which are modernizing their arsenals instead of eliminating them.”
A report published by the WCC this week said that while the final draft of the working group been “carefully revised in order to achieve consensus and be adopted without a vote”, Australia at the last minute “hardened its position and called for a vote”. Sixty-eight countries voted in favour of adopting the report while 21 nations joined Australia in voting against it and 13 states abstained.
Addressing a UN Security Council meeting this week, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on all states to focus on eradicating weapons of mass destruction – including nuclear weapons – “once and for all”.
Addressing the council’s “open debate on non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, he said it was “particularly disappointing” progress on eliminating nuclear weapons had descended into “fractious deadlock”.
“We see the reappearance of some of the discredited arguments that were used to justify nuclear weapons during the Cold War. Those arguments were morally, politically and practically wrong thirty years ago, and they are wrong now…It is time to refocus seriously on nuclear disarmament.”
