Cover photo: Caroline Schlunke from Basel Peace Office presents an origami crane to Ambassador Thomas Hajnoczi (Austria)
In December 2015, the United Nations General Assembly established an Open Ended Working Group to Take Forward Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament Negotiations (OEWG).
The mandate of the OEWG is to work on effective legal measures to achieve a world without nuclear weapons, and to make recommendations on interim measures to increase transparency and to reduce and eliminate the risk of accidental, mistaken, unauthorized or intentional nuclear weapon detonations.
The opening sessions in February 2016 were substantive and productive. However, the nuclear-armed States stayed away, and huge gaps remain between non-nuclear States and the nuclear allies. See Security and nuclear deterrence – talking past each other at the OEWG.
The next sessions of the OEWG are from May 2-13. These sessions could determine whether the gaps can be bridged, whether the OEWG can achieve agreement on the next nuclear disarmament measures to be adopted, and whether there is any possibility of moving at least some of the nuclear-armed States to agree. (The nuclear-armed States are participating in the Conference on Disarmament which resumes the week after the OEWG).
Basel Peace Office was very active in the February sessions, especially through UNFOLD ZERO - a platform established by Basel Peace Office, Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament, Mayors for Peace and other international organisations.
Basel Peace Office staff and interns welcomed delegates to the opening session with origami cranes (with a message inside), monitored the formal sessions and made a presentation, held informal meetings with delegates, and organised an NGO networking and strategy session. See UNFOLD ZERO at the UN nuclear disarmament working group and Basel Peace Office statement to the OEWG February session.
For the May session, Basel Peace Office has submitted a working paper entitled Building the Framework for a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World. The paper offers analysis of the deliberations to date, and makes the followiing recommendations in order to ensure success:
The Open Ended Working Group should:
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Recommend to the UN General Assembly to adopt a resolution at its 71st Session renewing the Open Ended Working Group and giving it a mandate to commence negotiations, or pre-negotiations (preparatory work), on a framework agreement or package of agreements for the achievement of a nuclear-weapon-free world;
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Recommend that negotiation of a treaty to prohibit the use of nuclear weapons be included in the framework agreement or package of agreements to be negotiated by the renewed Open Ended Working Group;
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Encourage governments to take national, regional and multilateral initiatives to strengthen the legal norm against nuclear weapons, including national prohibition legislation, establishment of additional nuclear-weapon-free zones, criminalization of nuclear-weapons-use through adoption of a protocol or amendment to the Rome Statute (International Criminal Court), and possibly the negotiation of a treaty prohibiting the threat, use and possession of nuclear weapons;
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Recommend the establishment of a multilateral project to examine the specific security roles played by nuclear weapons, evaluate the effectiveness of nuclear weapons to fulfill those roles, and highlight better non-nuclear alternatives to filling those roles;
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Recommend to the UN General Assembly to elevate to summit-level the UN High Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament to be held no later than 2018.
The OEWG is open for civil society representatives to observe and participate. Please let us know if you are planning on attending. Registration is required. Contact OEWG-NDN@unog.ch.
Basel Peace Office is also organising a Framework Forum event, a roundtable consultation with 20 key government delegations in Geneva two weeks prior to the OEWG sessions. The event, which is hosted by the Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations, will provide an opportunity for government delegations to consider key issues being raised in the Conference on Disarmament and the OEWG and discuss the possibilities for progress on a range of measures, including recommendations for action by non-nuclear, allied and nuclear-armed States.
Basel Peace Office is also helping the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms organise a dialogue of law experts with NGOs in Geneva on April 18 to discuss legal measures and actions for nuclear disarmament.
OEWG documents
- Program for the plenary sessions May 2-13
- Letter from Chair of the OEWG regarding registration for the May sessions and release of his synthesis paper on April 21