Photo: UN Human Rights Council, Geneva
The nuclear weapons policies of the Japan and South Korea have been challenged in the UN Human Rights Council this week as being in violation of the Right to Life, a right enshrined in Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
The challenges have been made in reports submitted to the Human Rights Council by the Basel Peace Office, in cooperation with other civil society organisations, as part of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the obligations of Japan, South Korea and 12 other countries under human rights treaties. (See Submission on Japan and Submission on South Korea).
Coming at a time when Russia has made nuclear threats to the USA and NATO if they intervene in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the submissions are a reminder of the importance to address the risks of nuclear deterrence policies, and that Russia is not the only country that possesses nuclear weapons and/or maintains options to initiate nuclear war.
"In times of high tensions involving nuclear-armed and/or allied states, plans and preparations for the use of nuclear weapons elevate the risk of nuclear war which would be a humanitarian catastrophe, severely violating the rights of current and future generations," says Alyn Ware, Director of the Basel Peace Office. "Compliance with the Right to Life with respect to nuclear weapons is therefore an urgent matter, impacting the rights of all humanity."
In 2018 the UN Human Rights Committee affirmed that the threat or use of nuclear weapons is incompatible with the Right to Life, and that States parties to the ICCPR have obligations to refrain from developing, acquiring, stockpiling and using them, and also have obligations to destroy existing stockpiles and pursue negotiations in good faith to achieve global nuclear disarmament.
Both Japan and South Korea are engaged in extended nuclear deterrence policies which involve the threat or use of US nuclear weapons on their behalf in an armed conflict. Both have also supported the option of first-use of nuclear weapons on their behalf, even when the United States has been trying to step back from such a policy. The submissions argue that the extended nuclear deterrence policies of Japan and South Korea are in violation of their human rights obligations, as is their lack of support for negotiations for comprehensive, global nuclear disarmament.
The submissions make a number of recommendations of policy actions the governments could take in order to conform to the Right to Life. These include adopting no-first-use policies, taking measures to phase out the role of nuclear weapons in their security doctrines such as by establishing a North East Asia Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone, and advancing at the 2022 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference a goal for the global elimination of nuclear weapons by 2045, the 75th anniversary of the NPT.
The submissions are not solely critical of the two governments. They also commend Japan and South Korea for positive steps they have taken, especially those of South Korea to use sports diplomacy (the 2018 Winter Olympics peace initiative) and other diplomatic efforts to rebuild dialogue and agreement with North Korea on a process for peace and denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
If the UN Human Rights Council decides to pick up on the challenges and recommendations in the submissions, and direct these to Japan and South Korea, the two countries are required to respond.
Similar submissions were made over the past two years to the Human Rights Council and other UN human rights bodies with regard to the nuclear policies of Russia, the USA, France, Canada, Denmark, Iceland, North Korea, Netherlands and the United Kingdom (see Nuclear weapons and the UN human rights bodies). At that time, the issues were not taken up in earnest by the relevant bodies. However, the increased threat of nuclear war arising from the Ukraine conflict might stimulate the Human Rights Council to make this a much higher priority for the current review cycles.
Contacts:
Alyn Ware, World Future Council / Basel Peace Office alyn@pnnd.org.