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ElBaradei: Deadline for Action Is Now

Issues

PNA Brings You an Article, Excerpted from
The International Atomic Energy Agency's
Vienna, Austria Headquarters Publication


Mohammed ElBaradei, Director, International Atomic Energy Agency, writes from Vienna, home of the IAEA, the agency charged with enforcing the NPT- Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty- which has jurisdiction to prevent proliferation and assist in disarmament:

  Earlier this year, four American éminences grises, Henry Kissinger, William Perry, George Shultz and Sam Nunn - representing a wealth of experience in defense and security strategies - declared that reliance on
nuclear weapons as a deterrent is becoming "increasingly hazardous and decreasingly effective". They called for urgent international cooperation to move towards a world free from nuclear weapons.  *  *  *  *

  It is ...clear that a security strategy rooted in "Us versus Them" is no longer sustainable. Every country, irrespective of its ideology or orientation, will do what it takes to feel secure, including through seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. This is the stark reality, moral equivalence aside. What makes this more dangerous is that, in an era of globalization and interdependence, the insecurity of some will inevitably lead to the insecurity of all. The solution, therefore, in my view, lies in creating an environment in which nuclear weapons are universally banned, morally abhorred, and their futility unmasked.

  The prospects for progress in preventing nuclear catastrophe will remain grim unless we begin working on a new security paradigm. A security paradigm in which no country relies on nuclear weapons for its security. A system with effective mechanisms for resolving conflicts. A system in which longstanding regional tensions, like those in the Middle East, are given the priority and attention they deserve. A system that is equitable, inclusive and effective.

  Last month, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons was launched in Melbourne, Australia. The campaign calls for a Nuclear Weapons Convention - a convention to outlaw nuclear weapons worldwide, much like the conventions on biological and chemical weapons. 
  In July 1996, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared that "the threat or use of nuclear weapons would generally be contrary to the rules of international law applicable in armed conflict, and in particular the principles and rules of humanitarian law."

  As with the convention on anti-personnel landmines, public involvement could provide the momentum to make the Nuclear Weapons Convention a reality. Christopher Weeramantry, a former judge of the International Court of Justice who took part in its landmark 1996 advisory opinion on nuclear weapons, has written that, "if we want more than the kind of snail's pace action of the past 50 years, we need a public campaign worldwide that is vocal enough to force swift action."

  We are at a crucial juncture. The system is faltering. We need serious commitments on nuclear disarmament, with clear milestones and accountability. We need an effective approach for dealing with proliferation threats. We need to develop a multinational approach to the nuclear fuel cycle. We need a universally robust verification system. We need an effective system for the security of nuclear material. And above all, we need to start serious work towards a new collective security paradigm. If we want to prevent a nuclear catastrophe, the deadline for action is now."

Copyright © 5-24-2007    International Atomic Energy Agency
 
   Several PNA Advisors, as well as its Director, took the ICJ opinion very seriously.  We formed part of a group led by noted international lawyer Peter Weiss which drafted a legal model for a Nuclear Weapons Convention.  That model is there, free for the taking by the world's leading powers-- and can be a basis for a prompt resumption of serious discussions on nuclear weapons reductions under the NPT, a logical follow-up to the Nunn-Kissinger-Perry-Schultz paper. Sam Nunn, a Democrat and former Senate Armed Services chairman, and Henry Kissinger, a Secretary of State under two Republican presidents, showed that non-partisanship on this issue is indeed possible in the U.S. as well as the world.

  We agree with ElBaradei-- the deadline for action is now. To that end, LAWS Project for Nuclear Awareness has joined with a number of other US NGO's, and signed onto the founding document for the Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons Free World, on June 2, 2007. 

  We encourage all PNA subscribers and members to support this campaign, which will be developing action networks and action platforms-- because the time is not tomorrow, but today.

  Please call or write your Senate and House members-- tell them you support this effort.  And ask your favorite presidential candidate-- "Will you support a treaty to reduce, and then end, all nuclear arms, as we agreed in the NPT Treaty years ago?"  Only then will citizen action today transform into nuclear disarmament, tomorrow.

 Ed Aguilar, LAWS-PNA Executive Director


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