Events

Friday January 26, 2024. 10:00-12:00  CET
Wohnzimmer, 2nd floor K-Haus, Kasernenstrasse 8, 4058 Basel, Switzerland
A hybrid side event of the Basel Peace Forum 2024

Friday January 26 at 4pm - 5:30pm Central Europe Time / 10am-11:30am Eastern Time
Online - Registration required.

3 prizes of €5000 each. The 9 finalists will present their projects. The audience then votes to determine the winners.

 

Applying human rights law to address existential threats to humanity
In-person event. Thursday July 6. 15:00-16:00
Sidley Austin Law Firm, Rue du Pré-de-la-Bichette 1 Geneva 1202

Registration

 

Nuclear Stories Pre-Premier
Zurich and online
Wednesday April 26, 2023
7pm - 8:30pm Central Europe Time.
Click here to register. No cost to join.
The event is held in conjunction with International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day

Human Rights and the Doomsday Clock
Using international human rights law to address existential threats
posed by nuclear weapons and climate change.

A side event to the UN Human Rights Council 42nd Universal Periodic Review

Wednesday January 25. 1:15 – 2:45pm
Sidley Austin Law Firm, Geneva.

Registration required: RSVP to alyn@pnnd.org or Ph/SMS to +41 788 912 156

 

January 20. 11am – 12:30pm
A side event of the Basel Peace Forum 2023

Online by zoom and in-person at K-Haus, Basel, Switzerland

Registration required.

 

Saturday January 21
4:30pm-6pm Central Europe Time / 10:30am-12noon Eastern Time USA
Online. Click here to register.
3 prizes of €5000 each. The 9 finalists will present their projects. The audience then votes to determine the winners.

Youth initiatives for a sustainable future

Join the 2022 PACEY Award Winners and Youth Fusion, winners of the Gorbachev/Schultz Legacy Youth Award
K-Haus, Kasernenstrasse 8, 4058 Basel
6pm-8pm. Tuesday November 8.
Followed by an apero

[Simultaneous interpretation in English and German]

Register at https://forms.gle/1sH37wqpQbN4vZBb9

 

Using international human rights law to address existential threats.
A side event to the UN Human Rights Council 50th Regular Session.

Friday July 1. 13:15 - 14:45. (In-person event)

Montreux Room, Varembé Conference Center (CCV). 9-11 Rue de Varembé, Geneva

Register for the event

 

The 3rd in a series of webinars on the youth-led campaign to take the issue of climate change to the International Court of Justice (World Court).

Friday March 4, 2022

Session 1: Timed for Asia/Pacific. 8am - 9:30am Central Europe Time. Event in English. Click here to register.

Session 2: Timed for the Americas/Europe/Africa/Middle East. Simulataneous translation in English/French/Spanish. Click here to register.

Friday Jan 21, 2022. 8:30am – 10am CET

Description: Peace, nuclear Abolition and Climate Engage Youth (PACEY) Award event

Two prizes of €5000 Euro each will be awarded to exemplary youth projects or initiatives to advance peace, climate protection and/or disarmament, especially nuclear disarmament.

Registration

Thursday Jan 20, 2022 8:00 pm – 9:30pm CET

Description: From youth vision and enthusiasm to policy change. An intergenerational forum between policymakers (legislators) and youth activists on the Climate / Nuclear Disarmament nexus. The event is held in conjunction with the Basel Peace Forum 2022.

Registration

A public in-person event featuring the two winning projects of the 2021 Basel PACEY (Youth) Awards.

Wednesday November 24, 18:30 – 20:00
Basel University ‘Old’ Campus
Rheinsprung 9, 4051 Basel

Register

Methods and examples of nonviolent actions to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow. An online event to commemorate the International Day of Nonviolence and the 152nd anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi.

Saturday October 2. 10am-12 noon Eastern Time USA / 4-6pm Central Europe Time / 7:30-9:30pm Delhi.

Simultaneous translation in English/French

Register for the event at https://bit.ly/nonviolence21century

Toward an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on the legal responsibility to ensure a stable climate for future generations

Webinar 2: What question to ask the Court? What sources of law to use?

Tuesday August 24, 2021
8am-10am Pacific Time USA / 11am-1pm Eastern Time USA / 4pm-6pm London / 5pm-7pm Central Europe

Simultaneous translation English/French. Click here to register.

An Inter-generational Forum followed by the PACEY Plus Youth Award

January 19, 2021. 15:00 – 19:15 Central Europe Time

A forum of youth, experts and policy makers discussing actions and effective policies for peace, disarmament, the climate and public health especially in times of pandemic. The event will be held in three sessions of 1¼  hours each with a short break between each session. 

Click here to register.

Session 1: Timed for Asia and the Pacific.
Thursday December 10. 8am Central Europe Time (10 am Moscow, 1pm Dhaka, 4pm Tokyo/Seoul, 7pm Suva)
Program and other information will be posted on the Session 1 event facebook page. Click here to register.

Session 2: Timed for the Americas, Europe and Africa.
Friday December 11. 11:30 Eastern time USA/Canada. (5:30pm CET)
Program and other information will be posted on the Session 2 event facebook page. Click here to register.

Webinar: Monday November 2, 2020
10am – 11:30am Eastern Time USA. 4pm-5:30pm Central Europe Time
Click here to register. Click here for the event flyer.

TheoSounds Concert to commemorate the International Day for Peace.
Sunday September 20 in Theodorskirche (Theodorskirchpl. 5, 4058 Basel) at 16:00

The concert is Schubert Notturno Op. 148 and Beethoven Piano Trio Op. 1 No. 1.

Performed by the PlayforRights Chamber Trio: Fraynni Rui (violin), Joonas Pitkänen (Violoncello) and Aleck Carratta (piano).
Free entry. We invite you to attend.

September 21- October 2, 2020.

A series of UN and UN-related events and actions running from Sep 21 (International Day for Peace) until October 2 (International Day for Nonviolence)

International webinar. Thursday  July 30, 2020.
9:00 am
- 10:30 am EDT  (15:00-16:30 CET)

Part of the Abolition 2000 webinar series on issues and actions for nuclear abolition
Click here to register. Click here for the event flyer.

Dates:
Thursday, May 14, 2020. Time: 11am EDT, 5pm CET
Tuesday May 19, 2020. Time: 9am CET

Contact: Youth actions webinar

 

International webinar, Tuesday April  21, 2020. Held in conjunction with Earth Day 2020 and the Global Days of Action on Military Spending.

The webinar will address: Cutting nuclear weapons budgets. Ending investments in nuclear weapons & fossil fuels. Reallocating these to public health, climate protection and sustainable development.

January 9, 2020. 1pm – 5:30pm. Basel, Switzerland.

A roundtable meeting of parliamentarians & city leaders with youth campaigners from the European climate, peace and nuclear disarmament movements.

Organised in conjunction with the Basel Peace Forum 2020: Cities in Time of Conflict & Peace, January 9-10, 2020.

Conference languages: English and German. Click here for the conference flyer.

Contact: info@baselpeaceoffice.org

Divestment and other actions by cities, universities and parliaments to reverse the nuclear arms race and protect the climate

Basel, Switzerland. April 12-13, 2019

A European and trans-Atlantic conference organised by Basel Peace Office.
Co-sponsored by IPPNW Switzerland and the Basel-Stadt Kanton, in cooperation with Mayors for Peace (Europe) and Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament.

Political and financial policies to protect future generations from climate change and nuclear weapons.

Monday January 14, 2019. 6pm-7:45pm
Hörsaal (Room) 215, Seminar fur Soziologie,
Basel University, Petersgraben 27, Basel, Switzerland

Click here for the program (pdf).
Contact info@baselpeaceoffice.org

 Thursday December 7.
Basel University, Hörsaal 001
18:00 - 20:00

Premier screening of the award-winning movie 'Where the Wind Blew' about the impact of nuclear tests in Nevada and Kazakhstan. Screenign is followed by discussion with representatives of Kazakhstan.

Basel University, September 14 - September 17

An international conference on the human impact of nuclear weapons and power, legal cases on behalf of victims, and protection of future generations.

Monday Jan 16. 16:30-18:30. Sydney Room, Floor 2, Messe Center, Messeplatz 21, Basel.

Europe could be caught in nuclear cross-fire between Russia and the United States. Join us for a discussion with Swiss and international speakers on new threats from nuclear weapons and what can be done about it.

Kazakh Room (Cinema XIV), Palais des Nations, Geneva.
September 27, 2016. 15:00 - 17:00.

Special event featuring
* Ela Gandhi (grand-daughter of Mahatma Gandhi and Co-President of Religions for Peace);
* Chain Reaction 2016 video, a series of nuclear disarmament actions and events around the world;

* Presentation of the Astana Vision declaration to the United Nations.

Please register at info@unfoldzero.org by September 22

Issues and proposals for taking forward nuclear disarmament
Framwork Forum roundtable for invited governments
April 18, 2016
Hosted by the Permanent Mission of Canada to the UN, Geneva
Co-sponsored by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung

From the NPT to the UN General Assembly: Filling the legal gap to prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons

Geneva, 1 September 2015, 13:15-18:00

Restaurant Layalina 121 rue de Lausanne, and Auditorium Jacques Freymond, rue de Lausanne 132       

Sponsored by Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament, Middle Powers Initiative, Basel Peace Office and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Geneva
Supported by the Right Livelihood Award Foundation and World Future Council

Screenings in various locations in Switzerland during the week September 21-26

Directed by Peter Anthony
Featuring: Stanislav Petrov, Kevin Costner, Sergey Shnrynov, Matt Damon, Natalia Vdovina & Robert de Niro

On the night of September 26, 1983, Stanislav Petrov disobeyed military protocol and probably prevented a nuclear holocaust. He says that he is not a hero. 'I was just in the right place at the right time.' You decide!

 

Wave goodbye to nukes! 24 hours of actions in capitals and other cities around the world April 26-27, 2015

Framework Forum roundtable
Monday September 8, 2014, 13:00 – 18:00
Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights
Auditoire Jaques Freymond, rue de Lausanne 132 , Geneva

By invitation only
Contact info@baselpeaceoffice.org

Kazakh Room (Cinema Room XIV),
Palais des Nations, United Nations, Geneva
September 25, 16:00 - 17:30
followed by refreshments

Organised by UNFOLD ZERO and the Basel Peace Office
Hosted by the United Nations Office of Disarmament Affairs

A UN pass is required to attend. Contact info@unfoldzero.org

18 August to 15 October 2014
Oberer Rheinweg, Basel, Between Mittlere Brücke (Middle Bridge) and Wettstein Bridge

Late October until early December 2014
Theatrestrasse, Basel. From Elizabethenkirche to Barfusserplatz

www.makingpeace.org

Sunday August 17, 6pm – 9pm
Im Fluss stage on the Rhine
Oberer Rheinweg, Basel

Free

PLAYforRIGHTS presents a Youth Music Performance to commemorate World Humanitarian Day

A range of live music featuring ERROR 404 brass band ensemble from Musik Akademie Basel

July 4 - 5
Basel, Switzerland

Hosted by Guy Morin, President of the Basel-Stadt Canton
Organised by the Basel Peace Office

Mayors, parliamentarians and civil society!
Join us in Basel to share initiatives, network with others and advance the cooperative security framework for peace, prosperity and nuclear disarmament.

Chernobyl exhibition and the Rhine
Kleinbasel, Basel
Sunday April 13, afternoon

With Basel Peace Office and Environmental Award laureates participating in the 3rd International Convention of Environmental Laureates.

13:00: Photo exhibition of Chernobyl nuclear disaster
by Alexander Hofmann
Basel Art Center, Riehentorstrasse 33, Basel
Discounted group rate 15 CHF (normal entry is 22 CHF)

13:50 Lunch
Merian Spitz Cafe, Rheingasse 2

15:30. Rhine Promenade, water-powered ferry, Munster

RSVP to alyn@pnnd.org or +41 788 912 156

International Day of Sport for Peace and Development
Sunday April 6, 2014

Carton Blanc photo event and short peace run/cycle in Basel
Followed by an informal talk on peace and sport – peace bike rides

3pm: Run/cycle along the Rhine from Oberer Rheinweg (under Wettstein Bridge) to the Three Countries Corner
4pm: Carton Blanc photo event at Three Countries Corner, Dreiländereck
5pm: Light meal and talk at Restaurant Schiff

Contact info@baselpeaceoffice.org

Act now to encourage your country to engage in the OEWG. Organize a public event with motive of “opening the door to a nuclear weapons free world”!

Tuesday 21 May, 2013
13:15 – 14:45
Room XI, Building A, UN Geneva

Side-event of Open Ended Working
Group on Nuclear Disarmament

Launch of the 2nd edition of the Nuclear Abolition Forum
Tuesday, 9 April 2013
12:30 – 14:00
Geneva Centre for Security Policy
WMO/OMM Building Avenue de la Paix 7bis, Geneva

Featuring:
Ambassador Urs Schmid (Switzerland)
Ambassador Nobuyasu Abe (Japan)
Jean-Marie Collin (PNND, France)
Marc Finaud (Program Adviser, GCSP)
Alyn Ware (Founder, Nuclear Abolition Forum, New Zealand)
Teresa Bergman (Researcher, Basel Peace Office)

6pm, Friday May 24
University of Basel, Lecture Hall 001
Petersgraben, Basel

Featuring:
Wilson Kipketer, runner. Current world record holder for the 800 and 1000 meters (indoors).
Spokesperson for L’organisation pour la Paix par le Sport (Peace and Sport)
Paol Hansen, Special Adviser UN Office on Sport for Development and Peace
Carola Szemerey, Youth Future Project
Henk Van Nieuwenhove, Flanders Peace Field project  (the 1914 Soccer Truce)

 

Nuclear Deterrence: Time to address the sacred cow!

Probably the biggest barrier to making progress on nuclear disarmament and in preventing nuclear proliferation is the continued role of nuclear deterrence in security thinking and doctrines. As long as States believe that nuclear deterrence can protect them from aggression, they will resist or block efforts and initiatives for nuclear disarmament – even if they accept legal obligations or make political commitments otherwise.

The International Court of Justice, in considering the legality of the threat or use of nuclear weapons, affirmed that any threat or use would generally be inconsistent with the rules of law applicable in wartime including international humanitarian law. The Court rejected arguments by the Nuclear Weapon States (NWS) that there were circumstances in which the threat or use of nuclear weapons would be legal. However, the ICJ also noted the practice of nuclear deterrence, which is ascribed to by the nuclear-weapon States and their allies (under extended nuclear deterrence relationships). As this was a practice that had been part of the security doctrines of a significant number of States, the ICJ could not conclude absolute illegality in all circumstances, noting an uncertainty in the case of self-defense in which the very survival of a State is at stake.

The ICJ recognized a threat to international order and to international law by the ongoing divergence of opinion on nuclear weapons, and indicated that the resolution of this dilemma existed in States fulfilling the obligation to pursue in good faith, and bring to a conclusion, negotiations on nuclear disarmament in all its aspects under strict and effective international control. Such negotiations would need to include the development of security methods and mechanisms to replace nuclear deterrence.

Shultz, Perry, Kissinger, and Nunn, argue that while nuclear deterrence was vital to prevent world war and to ensure national security in the bipolar world that existed from 1945 until 1991, in a world which has outgrown the security framework of the Cold War, the doctrine “is becoming increasingly hazardous and decreasingly effective.”

However, this perspective has not been embraced by the NWS and their allies, who continue to ascribe a key role to nuclear deterrence in providing security. There are some analysts who claim that security through nuclear deterrence is illusory, and that the real reason for States to hold onto nuclear weapons does not have to do with security but rather power projection, domestic politics or the political power of the weapons industry.

There are others who claim that nuclear deterrence is perhaps not required by countries with large and modern conventional forces or where there is little realistic risk of invasion that would threaten the existence of the State, but might perhaps be required by smaller countries in vulnerable positions that have been threatened with attack, such as Israel, Iran or North Korea.

Deterrence v Defense

Policy makers often talk about defense and deterrence as if they were the same. Ward Wilson makes a useful distinction between the two.

Deterrence is psychological. It is the process of persuading an opponent that the costs of a particular action are too high. It relies on the calculation of your enemy, on his mental acuity and rationality. In this way, deterrence can never work on a person who is insane, or whose ability to calculate has been overwhelmed by emotion. It relies on your opponent’s ability and willingness to calculate the costs before acting and is therefore, to the extent that human calculation is unreliable, an unreliable means of protecting yourself and those you love.

Defense, on the other hand, can be thought of as interposing a physical presence between your enemy and those you wish to protect from harm. Defense can be a shield held up to deflect a sword stroke, a bullet proof vest, or a field army interposed between your enemy and your economically fertile valleys and prosperous cities.

Ward Wilson, Rethinking Nuclear Weapons Project,
James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies

Regardless of whether nuclear deterrence is illusory or provides a real security benefit, if it is perceived as necessary by a State (and the State’s population) then it will not be possible to abandon the policy and achieve a nuclear-weapons-free world until there is a change in perception, or the replacement of nuclear deterrence by alternative security methods or mechanisms.

There is thus a need, and even a legal obligation, for those States that still ascribe to nuclear deterrence doctrine to identify the specific situations in which nuclear deterrence plays, or could play, a security role, and examine alternative approaches to achieving security in those situations.

A useful contribution to this exploration has been made by the International Commission for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND) in their report Eliminating Nuclear Threats: A Practical Agenda for Global Policy Makers which identified a number of key rationales for nuclear deterrence, examined the validity of these, and provided possible approaches to reducing and replacing the genuine security roles for nuclear deterrence.

In essence, the ICNND indicated that some drivers for nuclear deterrence are totally illegitimate. These include:

  • The argument that nuclear weapons cannot be un-invented so there is no point trying to eliminate them;
  • The ascribing of status to nuclear weapons possession;
  • The use of nuclear weapons as a tool of power and persuasion;
  • The argument that disarmament is not necessary to advance non-proliferation

Other writers have also identified the financial interest of corporations producing nuclear weapons systems and the nuclear weapons scientific communities as strong drivers for maintaining nuclear weapons policies.

The ICNND argued that other drivers or roles ascribed to nuclear deterrence are ill-founded, un-proven or can now be met by other means. These include the beliefs that:

  • Nuclear weapons have deterred, and will continue to be required to deter, war between the major powers;
  • Nuclear weapons are required to deter any chemical or biological weapons attack;
  • Nuclear weapons are required to deter terrorist attacks;
  • Nuclear weapons are required to protect US allies;
  • Any major move toward disarmament would be inherently destabilizing.

However, the ICNND argues that there are some genuine security roles for nuclear deterrence which must be addressed in order to achieve comprehensive nuclear disarmament. These include the role of nuclear weapons to deter nuclear attack and the possible role of nuclear weapons in countries with inferior conventional forces to deter any large scale conventional attack.

"Nuclear deterrence is a scheme for making nuclear war less probable by making it more probable."
Commander Robert Green (Royal Navy, retired)
Breaking Free from Nuclear Deterrence, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

A robust, verifiable and enforceable global prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons, for example under a nuclear weapons convention, would remove the ‘necessity’ to possess nuclear weapons in order to deter against other nuclear weapons. Replacing the role of nuclear weapons to deter a conventional attack might require a range of measures including cooperative security mechanisms, legally binding security assurances and/or progress on conventional forces agreements.

However, Ward Wilson (Five Myths About Nuclear Weapons, to be published soon) argues that the deterrence role ascribed to nuclear weapons is in most cases illusory and does not stand up to rational military or security thought. Wilson argues that, despite long-held beliefs to the contrary, nuclear weapons do not shock and awe opponents; nuclear deterrence is not effective in a crisis; massive damage and killing civilians does not cause leaders to back down; and that the bomb has not kept the peace for sixty-five years. Deterrence could thus be abandoned even without the need to devise alternatives.

Up until recently the Sacred Cow of nuclear deterrence – the irrational faith in the policy – has been virtually un-examined and unquestioned by security planners. Wilson notes that nuclear weapons “are wrapped in a shroud of sixty years of rhetoric and hyperbole. We have attached such deep feelings to them that they have been transfigured. We constantly misconceive the problems and issues that are associated with nuclear weapons because we cannot see the weapons themselves with unblinking eyes.”

However, an increasing public acceptance of nuclear weapons as both contrary to international humanitarian law and counter-productive to national and human security could increase the rational analysis of nuclear deterrence, and lower the security threshold required for States to join a nuclear abolition process. Indeed the internationalization of finance, trade, communications, social relationships and culture is relegating nuclear deterrence to being a dinosaur of the 20th Century – totally irrelevant to current political conditions and security needs – particularly in the minds of the younger generations, including in the NWS, who increasingly see no rationale for maintaining nuclear weapons.

Helen Clark (then Prime Minister of New Zealand and now the Head of the UN Development Program) has noted that “In the 21st Century, as the ever-expanding exchange of peoples, cultures and trade across nations helps to ease nationalistic prejudices, and as the shibboleths of the Cold War subside, it is time to abolish nuclear weapons and make the world a safer place for all peoples.”


Alyn Ware, Founder of the Nuclear Abolition Forum
Comments to alyn@lcnp.org

Published in IALANA News, April 2012

Additional reading:

Share