Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Nuclear Abolition Roundtable Discussion


You are cordially invited to a Roundtable

Monday 11August 2008

9.30 am - 12.30 pm

At the Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations


Nuclear Abolition Now:

Tomorrow May Be Too Late





Organized by
Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations
Ministry of Foreign Affairs

with
United Nations Association of Malaysia,
Physicians for Peace and Social Responsibility.



PROGRAMME:




9.30 am

Registration

10.00 am

Welcoming remarks by
Tan Sri Razali Ismail,
Deputy President, UNAM

Moderator
Datuk Dr. Ian Chia,
Vice President, UNAM

10.15 am

Screening of DVD-
Nuclear Weapons and the Human Future

10.30 am

Presentation by
Dato' Dr Ronald McCoy,
President, Physicians for Peace and Social Responsibility

11.00 am

Presentation by
Mr Alyn Ware,
Consultant, International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms
Global Coordinator,
Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament

11.30 am

Discussion

12.20pm

Concluding remarks by
Tan Sri Hasmy Agam,
Executive Chairman, IDFR
Secretary-General, UNAM

12.30 pm

Refreshments


 INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO ABOLISH NUCLEAR WEAPONS Nine countries in the world possess 26,000 nuclear weapons. Thousands are primed to be launched on warning within minutes. Each directly threatens global security and human survival. A single nuclear bomb, if dropped on a city, could kill millions of people. They are the only weapons capable of destroying the planet in a matter of hours. The abolition of nuclear weapons is possible, necessary and increasingly urgent. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) is a global grassroots movement, initiated by the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and launched internationally at a meeting of parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2007. We are calling on governments to negotiate a binding Nuclear Weapons Convention - a comprehensive treaty to ban nuclear weapons and ensure their elimination. At least 127 countries – including China, India, Pakistan and North Korea – support such a treaty. We have already outlawed other weapons of mass destruction. Now we must turn our attention to banning nuclear weapons. Many former and current political leaders are now calling on the nuclear weapon states to eliminate their nuclear arsenals, and some military leaders assert that nuclear weapons have no military use. In 1996, the International Court of Justice concluded that “There exists an obligation to pursue in good faith and bring to a conclusion negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament in all its aspects under strict and effective international control.” Scientists, who worked on the Manhattan Project to produce the first three atomic bombs, introduced the Doomsday Clock in 1947 to alert the world of the prospect of nuclear war. The Clock has become a universally recognized indicator of the world’s vulnerability to a nuclear catastrophe. On 17th January 2007, the minute hand was moved from seven to five minutes to midnight. We stand at the brink of a second nuclear age. Not only are governments refusing to get rid of their nuclear weapons, but they are also building new ones and lowering the threshold for their use. The key to abolition is you. All people, from every part of the globe, must join forces to demand the abolition of nuclear weapons. No task is more urgent than this. THE CASE FOR A NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONVENTION Climate change and nuclear war are the two most serious threats to human security and planetary survival. Almost all governments are actively addressing the causes of climate change, but few are acting meaningfully to prevent nuclear war by achieving the abolition of nuclear weapons. The nuclear weapons states continue to rely on nuclear weapons for their security and are turning once again to nuclear arms- defining new targets, framing new policies and strategies, and producing new weapons and delivery vehicles. Their actions have paralysed the nuclear disarmament process and stimulated non-nuclear weapon states to offset the military imbalance by developing their own nuclear arsenals. As long as nuclear weapons exist, it is inevitable that they will one day be used by decision, accident or miscalculation. The future holds three options: living dangerously with a growing number of nuclear weapons states, maintaining the status quo through counter-proliferation measures, or abolishing nuclear weapons through a nuclear weapons convention or a framework of treaties. More than 120 countries have voted in the United Nations for the negotiation of a nuclear weapons convention that would eliminate all nuclear weapons, prohibit their production, and prevent breakout through a strong verification regime. Experts in law, science and medicine have drafted and submitted to the UN a Nuclear Weapons Convention, similar to the treaties which have banned chemical and biological weapons, landmines and cluster munitions. There are many obstacles to nuclear abolition, but the fundamental one is the lack of political will. But there are now signs of a shift in thinking among past and present leaders, generating guarded optimism that the world could be free of nuclear weapons in the next two decades. Four American ‘cold warriors’ and members of the security establishment – Henry Kissinger, George Schultz, William Perry and Sam Nunn – have called for a world free of nuclear weapons. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has expressed the same sentiments and appointed an International Commission for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament. This is a great opportunity for middle-power, non-nuclear weapon states to take the initiative by convening multilateral negotiations, leading to the conclusion of a nuclear weapons convention. The commencement of such negotiations would put considerable pressure on the nuclear weapon states to join the process, as did the negotiations in the Ottawa process in persuading countries with landmines to give them up and join the Landmine Ban Treaty. Such a global endeavor to abolish nuclear weapons will require the investment of considerable political capital by one or more middle powers. Would Malaysia, Australia, the New Agenda Coalition, and other like-minded states rise collectively to the occasion?


International Campaign To Abolish Nuclear Weapons www.icanw.org

Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations (IDFR) Ministry of Foreign Affairs


Direct contact : E-mail: alex@idfr.gov.my TEL: +603 21491060 TEL +603 2149 1000 FAX +603 2144 5640 www.idfr.gov.my Jalan Wisma Putra, 50602 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations (IDFR) Ministry of Foreign Affairs






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