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Reaching Critical Will is a project of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.

M+5 draft Outcome Document

How the new draft compares to the previous one, and what you can do to influence upcoming negotiations

The most recent draft Outcome Document for the Millennium+5 (M+5) Summit to be held in New York at the start of the 60th Session of the General Assembly was released on Friday, August 5, 2005, and a new round of negotiations on the document is scheduled to begin August 22, 2005. The new document is available here. The section on disarmament and non-proliferation contained several notable changes, including:

• References to a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT) were deleted from a stand-alone paragraph and combined with language addressing both an FMCT and PAROS in the context of agreeing on an agenda in the CD

• The word “indefinite” was deleted from the language on “maintaining an indefinite moratorium on nuclear test explosions pending the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty”

• Language on the prevention of the spread of nuclear technology and alternatives to nuclear technology, which previously preceded the now stand-alone declaration on respecting the peaceful use of nuclear technology, was deleted

• A bullet point calling on the Nuclear Weapon States (NWS) to reaffirm their commitment to Negative Security Assurances (NSAs) was added

• More specific language on prevention non-state actors’ acquisition of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and complying with Resolution 1540 was added

• Language contextualizing a call for universal accession to the comprehensive safeguards agreement as deterring nuclear proliferation was deleted and language contextualizing the call as a method for strengthening “verification by the IAEA of the peaceful use of nuclear energy” was added; and a call to adopt the Model Additional Protocol was added in the same paragraph

Some of these changes, such as those referring to the CTBT, Physical Protection of Nuclear Material and peaceful uses, appear to have come from the joint proposal for the draft Outcome Document of the UN Summit submitted to General Assembly President Jean Ping by the Seven Nations (Australia, Chile, Indonesia, Norway, Romania, South Africa and the United Kingdom) seeking to strengthen the nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament regime.

Several NGOs, including Reaching Critical Will, drafted a letter to governments advising them to at least maintain the current language on disarmament and offering suggestions for strengthening that language. The letter was sent to all UN Ambassadors on August 17, 2005 and is available here.

Because a new round of negotiations on the Outcome Document is scheduled to begin Monday, August 22, now is the opportune time for you to contact your government and advocate for stronger disarmament language. You can find the contact for your Foreign Ministry and UN Ambassador here on the RCW website. Feel free to send the letter to them or use it as your talking points.