Multilateral disarmament for peace, security, development, and human rights

Chile’s Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs delivered the country’s first high-level presentation to the Conference on Disarmament (CD), speaking about the necessary steps to nuclear disarmament and the problems of the CD’s methods of work. The Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of Italy spoke about Italy’s priorities for the CD and the representative for the European Union delivered a statement on the fissile materials-cut off treaty. Though last week the president of the CD indicated that high-level representatives of Iran and Japan would also be addressing the Conference today, neither attended the meeting.

Brief highlights
Chile argued, “there are no good proliferators versus bad proliferators. Any proliferation is negative and all nuclear weapons generate unacceptable risk for the international security.”

Chile called for security at lower levels of armaments.

Chile and Italy called for entry into force of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and negotiation of a fissile materials cut-off treaty (FMCT). They also emphasized the importance of the upcoming nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Preparatory Committee in 2009 and Review Conference in 2010.

Italy welcomed movement on US-Russian nuclear reductions and called for the CD to give attention to the issue of negative security assurances.

Italy’s representative noted his government will “actively support in every way current efforts to reach a wider-ranging, legally binding agreement on cluster munitions in the framework of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, acceptable to those countries not able to sign the Oslo Treaty.”

The European Union called for the start of negotiations without preconditions of an FMCT.

Disarmament and security
Chile’s Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alberto van Klaveren, argued that multilateral disarmament is a necessary response to the economic, food, climate, and energy crises. He noted, “peace and security, development and human rights are the pillars of the UN system ... nuclear disarmament is not only the most important issue of our common agenda, but ... it’s materialization is the keystone for achieving security for all States at a lower military level.”

Steps to nuclear disarmament
Both the Italian and Chilean representatives called for entry into force of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Chile’s Vice Minister said he “expected” US ratification “should make way for a ‘virtuous’ circle which would foster a speedy entry into force ... [and] offer the legal and political confidence the CTBT is due to bring about in international relations.”

He also argued that a fissile materials cut-off treaty (FCMT) is the necessary next step and that verification is “part of the very essence of Disarmament instruments.” Italy’s Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Vincenzo Scotti, argued that an FMCT would make nuclear disarmament irreversible and that “no Treaty on disarmament can endure without a credible and workable verification mechanism.” Deputy Representative Ivan Pintir of the Czech Republic delivered a statement on the fissile materials-cut off treaty on behalf of the European Union, in which he called for the start of negotiations without preconditions of an FMCT. He also reiterated the European Union’s calls for moratoriums on fissile material production and dismantlement of fissile material production capacities related to nuclear weapons. All three representatives welcomed recent statements by the new US administration on this subject.

Work of the CD
Chile’s Vice Minister noted that while nuclear disarmament will require commitment of the “great powers,” their interests seem to be protected by the rule of consensus, which acts as “a kind of veto, which, combined with the practice of linkage, paralyzed the Conference impeding even the slightest result: if this were not the case, the Ottawa and Oslo conventions would have been negotiated in Geneva.”

He argued that it is one thing to “safeguard privileged security interests requiring consensus in order to enter into the final stage of a disarmament negotiation, but something quite different to block the initiation of any negotiation or the mere establishment of a subsidiary organ to set the stage for such negotiation.” He thus called for enhanced democratic procedures in the CD to reflect the reality of indivisible security and interdependence between states, cautioning that the Conference is “only an instrument” to be used “to meet collective political needs,” and is not an end in itself. He urged the CD’s expansion, the participation of civil society, better coordination with other disarmament machinery, and a “communication and dissemination policy with regard to the public opinion which is up to the mark of the present-day culture of accountability enforceable upon any authority.”

Notes from the gallery
I continue to caution against references to the so-called “wise men” Italy’s representative invoked in his statement. While increased recognition that nuclear disarmament is an attainable goal can be helpful to achieving the elimination of nuclear weapons, the vision for a “a world free of nuclear weapons” laid out in the writings of Kissinger, Perry, Nunn, and Schultz is, as others have noted, “a pragmatic strategy to maintain US military and economic dominance well into the 21st century,” and does not match the “holistic goals” sought by those working for genuine peace and justice. We encourage all those seriously committed to peace and equity through disarmament to analyze the words of those “wise men” in the context of their broader political views.

The next plenary meeting of the CD is scheduled for Thursday, 5 March 2009.

- Ray Acheson, Reaching Critical Will of WILPF