"All States need to make special efforts to establish the necessary framework to achieve and maintain a world without nuclear weapons."
Excerpt from the Final Agreement of the 2010 Conference of States Parties to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT Review Conference)
The Framework Forum is an initiative of the Middle Powers Initiative and Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament to bring governments together in track-two meetings in order to commence the work of building the framework to establish a nuclear weapons-free world.
In particular, the Framework Forum meetings aim to examine the legal, technical, political and institutional requirements to achieve a nuclear-weapons-free world, to determine which of these elements can be developed in the short-term by middle power goverments, and to consider how middle power governments can move the nuclear-weapon-States to commence negotations for comprehensive nuclear disarmament.
The Framework Forum was launched in May 2012 at a roundtable meeting in Vienna of more than 50 representatives from governments and NGOs, which was co-hosted by MPI and the Austrian government, and featured presentations from Angela Kane (the UN High Representative for Disarmament) and Ambassador Libran Cabactulan (the President of the 2010 NPT Review Conference).
A second meeting of the Framework Forum was held in New York in October 2012, hosted by the German Mission to the United Nations. 29 governments attended this session.
The Framework Forum is built on the success of the Article VI Forum, led by the Middle Powers Initiative, which organised a series of track-two meetings of governments from 2005-2010 in order to build consensus on nuclear disarmament for the 2010 NPT Review Conference.
The Basel Peace Office is working with PNND and MPI on future meetings of the Framework Forum inlcuding in Berlin in February 2013 supported by the German Foreign Office and in Switzerland in November 2013 suported by the Swiss Federal Department of Foriegn Affairs.
For more information see:
- Building the Framework for a Nuclear Weapons-Free World: Laying Out the Map, Comments by Angela Kane, UN High Rep for Disarmament, Framework Forum meeting, 1 May 2012
- The role of middle power countries in building the framework for a nuclear-weapons-free world, Presentation by Ambassador Libran Cabactulan (President of the 2010 Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) to the Framework Forum meeting 1 May 2012
- Creating the Conditions and Building the Framework for a Nuclear Weapons-Free World, Comments by Angela Kane, UN High Rep for Disarmament, Framework Forum meeting 10 October 2012
- Building a Framework for a Nuclear Weapons-Free World: Laying out the Map, MPI brief on the Framework Forum