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June 2023 E-News

In many countries, June is Pride Month. Pride started as a riot, with LGBTQ+ people standing up for their rights and existence against police brutality and social violence. Today, as fascists in many places are trying to legislate misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, and racism back into dominance, Pride is as important as ever. And LGBTQ+ activism, analysis, and inclusion is imperative for disarmament. Weapons do not exist outside of systemic oppressions and exclusions; they cannot be abstracted from the hierarchies and harms of our societies. In fact, they are directly implicated in these systems and facilitate them. Thus, organising for disarmament and demilitarisation must include an intersectional feminist analysis and a critique of gender essentialism, binaries, and racism. Only by standing together against these overlapping oppressions can we build sustainable peace.

In this edition:

Upcoming disarmament meetings

Open-ended Working Group on security of and in the use of information and communications technologies 

The fifth substantive session of the Open-ended Working Group on security of and in the use of information and communications technologies is taking place from 24–28 July 2023 in New York, USA. Check out this article to find out about what was discussed in the previous session of the Group in March.

2023 NPT Preparatory Committee

The first session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2026 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) will meet from 31 July–11 August 2023 at the Vienna International Centre in Vienna, Austria. In addition, the Working Group on further strengthening the review process of the Treaty will take place 24–28 July in the same venue. Information about civil society participation is available at the RCW website. 

Registration and accreditation: The accreditation period is over. Online registration will be available from 19 June to 17 July 2023 to representatives of NGOs whose accreditation has been approved. Check out this information note for further info.

Side events: Side events that can be accommodated within the room allocated to non-governmental organisations (Conference Room M4) are being scheduled by WILPF.  You can find more information on how to book the civil society room at our website. 

NGO presentations: It is tentatively expected that a meeting for non-governmental organisation presentations will be held on Wednesday, 2 August 2023 from 10:00–13:00. Please contact emma.bjerten[at]wilpf.org to learn more about how civil society presentations are being organised.

NPT Working Group: Ahead of the PrepCom, from 24–28 July, a working group on further strengthening the review process of the NPT, will convene in Vienna. Please continue to check the RCW website for further information on parameters for civil society engagement in this meeting. 

Ninth Conference of States Parties (CSP9) to the Arms Trade Treaty

The Ninth Conference of States Parties (CSP9) to the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) will be held from 21–25 August 2023 in Geneva, Switzerland. Registrations to CSP9 are open from 8 June to 7 August 2023. You can find more information on how to register here. If you are a WILPF member wanting to attend, please contact laura.varella[at]wilpf.org by 31 July 2023.

Recently concluded disarmament meetings

Second session of CCW Group of Governmental Experts on autonomous weapon systems

The second session of the 2023 Group of Governmental Experts on autonomous weapon systems, held within the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), took place in Geneva from 15–19 May. States managed to agree to a report, but once again the text falls far short of what is needed to address the urgent risks posed by autonomous weapons. To learn about what was discussed during the meeting, as well as the content of the final report, check out our CCW Report.

G7 leaders fails to make progress on nuclear disarmament 

The G7 Hiroshima Summit, held from 19–21 May 2023, failed to deliver progress on nuclear disarmament. As stated by ICAN, “What we got from the leaders' discussion on nuclear weapons yesterday was a rehash of ideas and proposals that have failed to deliver progress over the past three decades. They did not announce anything new or concrete.” In an interview with Time, Setsuko Thurlow said that words are not enough and called on the group to take concrete steps toward ensuring that the tragedy unleashed by nuclear weapons in Hiroshima never happens again.  

On 20 May, a citizens' march to protest against the G7 Summit was conducted in the streets of Hiroshima. 250 people took part in the march, including some survivors of the bombs dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Japan Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs (Gensuikyo) urged the G7 leaders to “break away from the ‘nuclear deterrence’ theory, which is based on the assumption that nuclear weapons would cause inhumane consequences like in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and to strive for the prohibition and abolition of nuclear weapons.” (Picture credit: Gensuikyo)

International Women’s Day for Peace and Disarmament

Nearly four decades ago, in the early 1980s, women activists and peacemakers came together to forge a significant milestone making 24 May the International Women’s Day for Peace and Disarmament. In order to celebrate this date, this year WILPF shares five key reasons why feminists should care about disarmament and demilitarisation. In this article, we explore the key links between disarmament and working towards gender equality, economic justice, addressing the ecological crisis, promoting peace and security, and the transformative power of feminist activism in driving meaningful change. (Image credit: WILPF)

World Environment Day

5 June was World Environment Day. To commemorate the occasion, WILPF published two Q&As to amplify the remarkable efforts of climate activists worldwide fighting for environmental justice. The first Q&A features Edwick Madzimure, President of WILPF Zimbabwe, passionate activist and author of the eye-opening report, “How Militarism Has Impoverished the African Continent, Placing it at the Epicentre of the Climate Crisis.” In the second Q&A, WILPF highlighted the inspiring work of Aubine Sandrine Mahda Kepseu, a feminist peace and climate activist from WILPF Cameroon. Together with local organisations and government bodies, including Association Communauté et Développement Durable and Cameroon’s Ministry for the Environment, they have empowered students and educators from five secondary schools in the Littoral region to champion environmental awareness and protection. 

WILPF also recently hosted a side event at the Bonn Climate Change Conference entitled “Demilitarisation for decarbonisation & climate finance for the Global Stocktake – and why it’s a feminist issue.” The speakers discussed the lack of recognition of the significant threat that militarisation poses to the implementation of the Paris Agreement. Panellists also shared, from an intersectional feminist perspective, evidence of their lived experience with militarisation and climate impacts in their communities, while others illuminated global trends and gaps on the topic. (Image credit: DisobeyArt)

New resources on TPNW implementation and on nuclear weapon spending

The Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic released a new report on reporting guidelines for Articles 6 and 7 under the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). The publication provides a comparative analysis of reporting on comparable provisions under other disarmament and arms-related treaties, which, according to the Vienna Action Plan, should inform reporting guidelines for the TPNW. The report builds on this precedent and adapts it to the nuclear weapons context in order to make recommendations for the form, process, and content of reporting on victim assistance, environmental remediation, and international cooperation and assistance under the TPNW. For a summary of the report’s findings, see this blog post.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) published the report “Wasted: 2022 Global Nuclear Weapons Spending”. According to ICAN, “The report shows that global spending on nuclear weapons has increased for the third year in a row as the nine nuclear-armed states continued to modernise and expand their arsenals.” It also “illustrates how private contractors continue to benefit from nuclear weapons spending and lobby to maintain nuclear weapons.” 

Resistance to AUKUS and the nuclear submarines

Opposition to the Australia-United Kingdom-United States (AUKUS) military alliance, especially its nuclear-powered submarine agreement, continues to grow in the Pacific. Jim Coombs asserts that “AUKUS relies on the dubious proposition that nuclear propulsion will in 20 years or so be a viable option. A dubious proposition in twenty years, as it hardly is value for money now.” The Queensland Labor party has also refused “to support the Albanese government’s AUKUS agreement, signalling a bigger clash is on the way at the ALP’s national conference in August." And in an article published at Arena, Guy Rundle explores how the agreement with the United Kingdom and the United States unfolds contradictions alongside both Australia’s foreign and domestic policy: in particular, that at the same time that the Australian government is supporting a referendum to add a meaningful First Nations “Voice” to Parliament, it has simultaneously “barrelled on with an external transformation of sovereignty via the commitments that will hold AUKUS together.” Rundle argues, “The intermeshing and interoperability of Australian and US defence systems will go well beyond that required for genuine national defence, and will constitute a material surrendering of the most crucial part of sovereignty—not the capacity to wage war, but to not wage it, to not be drawn in.”(Image credit: Ray Acheson)

Meanwhile, in Aotearoa New Zealand, several critics reacted to the Defence Minister’s announcement that the country would be “willing to explore” participation in military technology sharing under pillar two of the AUKUS agreement. In addition to arguments that this would compromise Aotearoa New Zealand’s antinuclear commitment, undermine diplomacy, and raise the prospect of a destabilising arms race in the Pacific region, some critics have also raised that this might infringe on Aotearoa New Zealand’s policy approach to autonomous weapons systems (AWS). That would be the case because there is lack of clarity both on what kind of technology sharing and development would be included under pillar two of the AUKUS arrangement, and what Aotearoa New Zealand’s policy position on AWS currently is.

Concern over autonomous weapons grows in the public debate

In early June, it was reported that the United States Air Force simulated a scenario where an artificial intelligence (AI)-operated drone decided to kill the human operator in order to achieve the mission objective. The original publication has issued a correction noting that this was not an actual simulation, but rather a hypothetical military scenario. Stop Killer Robots has issued a statement on the story, and also covered it in a twitter thread. 

This news came just days after a warning about the existential threats posed by AI from industry figures. The statement, which was signed by more than 350 researchers, executives, and other professionals, says, “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.”

Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, a new national survey revealed an overall public support for “laws and regulations” to guide the use of AI. The survey, conducted with 4000 British adults by the Turing Institute and the Ada Lovelace Institute, has found, “People are most concerned about advanced robotics such as driverless cars (72%) and autonomous weapons (71%).” 

The use of AI is also intensifying Israel’s bombardments of Gaza. The bombardments are becoming more frequent due to the use of AI technology, which allows the army to  “pinpoint targets” much more quickly. In addition, during a panel in late May about the militarisation of digital spaces, Susan Aboeid of Human Rights Watch talked about how Israeli authorities use surveillance technologies to deepen systemic discrimination against Palestinians, and warned that the use of autonomy in weapon systems is a dangerous part of this trend. She highlighted the urgent need for an international legal response against autonomous weapon systems.    

Gender and Disarmament Database: Recommendation of the month

Our recommendation of the month is the article “Queer militarism?! The politics of military inclusion advocacy in authoritarian times”. Published in 2021, the article “consists of a conversation between Aaron Belkin, director of the Palm Center, who has spent decades advocating for queer and trans military inclusion, and Dean Spade, a trans racial- and- economic- justice–focused activist and scholar who opposes military inclusion advocacy. The conversation examines fundamental debates about the possibilities and limits of legal equality for marginalized and stigmatized groups, drawing on critical race theory, women of colour feminisms, anticolonial critique, and competing theories of queer and trans liberation work.”

Upcoming events

Conferences

Antimilitarist Roots
16–18 June 2023 | London, UK

Open-ended Working Group on security of and in the use of information and communications technologies
24–28 July 2023 | New York, USA

NPT Working Group on further strengthening the review process of the Treaty
24–28 July 2023 | Vienna, Austria

2023 NPT Preparatory Committee
31 July–11 August 2023 | Vienna, Austria

Ninth Conference of States Parties (CSP9) to the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT)
21–25 August 2023 | Geneva, Switzerland

Events and webinars

Arms Trade Controls in an Era of Geopolitical Tensions
16 June 2023 | Oslo, Norway

Feminist Interventions: Resisting the Militarisation of the Climate Crisis
21 June 2023 |Online

Featured news

Ambassador Jayantha Dhanapala passes away

Former UN Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs Ambassador Dhanapala of Sri Lanka passed away at the age of 85. Ambassador Dhanapala represented Sri Lanka at several international conferences, chairing many of them including the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review and Extension Conference of 1995. From 1987–92, he served as Director of the UN Institute for Disarmament Research and later, as the UN Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs during 1998–2003. After he retired from the UN, he supported many civil society campaigns for disarmament, most recently the Stop Killer Robots campaign, and was an ally to those working globally for disarmament, including Reaching Critical Will.

Parliamentarians sign letter calling for the participation of France at the 2MSP to the TPNW

60 French parliamentarians signed an OpEd supporting the participation of France at the Second Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). In the statement, the parliamentarians ask the French President “to not to isolate France from the dialogue on nuclear disarmament at the United Nations, as this would weaken France's credibility and blur our nuclear posture.”

Spanish NGOs form a new alliance for the TPNW

45 organisations in Spain have formed the Alliance for Nuclear Disarmament (Alianza por el Desarme Nuclear) to persuade the Spanish government to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Speaking at the launch event, the alliance’s coordinator, Maribel Hernández, urged the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, to “take a courageous step forward” and sign the TPNW “as a symbol of our country’s commitment to peace.” 

Nuclear test survivors call on Australian Prime Minister to join TPNW

A group of Australian atomic survivors travelled to Canberra to speak with government decision-makers about their experiences as survivors of the UK nuclear testing programme in Western Australia and South Australia. They outlined expectations for future actions from the government to acknowledge and address the harms caused by nuclear weapons testing, calling directly on the Prime Minister to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). (Image credit: @TimMilesWright)

IPPNW releases statement against dumping of contaminated water in the Pacific Ocean

The International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) adopted a statement during the organisation's 23rd World Congress in Mombasa calling on the Japanese government to abandon the planned release of over 1.3 million tons of radioactively-contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster into the Pacific Ocean. As said in the statement, “We consider that the plan to use the Pacific Ocean as a radioactive waste dump involves risks to oceanic and human health and is neither responsible nor sustainable.”  

Destruction of Ukraine dam raises concerns over nuclear power plants and landmines

As reported by VOA, the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in Ukraine will have a catastrophic effect on locating landmines in the affected region. Erik Tollefsen, head of the Weapon Contamination Unit at the International Committee of the Red Cross, said, “The ICRC had spent several months helping mine clearance operations in Ukraine, mapping and marking minefields and providing training and equipment. Now all of that has been washed away.”

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on 8 June that the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in Ukraine was still receiving water needed to cool its reactors despite the rupture of the Kakhovka dam. On 11 June, the IAEA  published an update saying that experts needed access to a location near Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant to clarify the reason for a significant discrepancy between different measurements of the height of the reservoir that is supplying water to cool the facility’s six reactors and spent fuel storage. 

Autonomous weapons discussed at the Organization of American States (OAS)

On 31 May, the Permanent Council of the OAS addressed the issue of autonomous weapons systems following a proposal by Costa Rica. The Vice-Minister for Multilateral Affairs from Costa Rica, Ambassador Christian Guillermet, the Special Representative of Brazil to the Conference on Disarmament, Ambassador Flávio S. Damico, and representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Stop Killer Robots campaign spoke at the meeting.  

New report explores employment of former government employees by military contractors

A new report from the office of US Senator Elizabeth Warren (Democrat-MA) shows that the practice of senior policymakers passing through the revolving door from government to industry is alive and well. It documents “672 cases in 2022 in which the top 20 defense contractors had former government officials, military officers, Members of Congress, and senior legislative staff working for them as lobbyists, board members, or senior executives.” As Forbes notes, “In a full 91 percent of the cases they identified, the former government officials went to work as lobbyists for one of the top 20 Pentagon contractors. In short, the employment of former government employees is based on who they know, not what they know. And their job is to help boost the revenues of these companies, not improve their operations.”

Data shows that the US has sold weapons to most of world's autocracies

According to an Intercept review of recently released government data, the US sold weapons to at least 57 percent of the world’s autocratic countries in 2022. As reported by the news organisation, “Since President Joe Biden came into office in 2021, he has described a ‘battle between democracies and autocracies’ in which the U.S. and other democracies strive to create a peaceful world. The reality, however, is that the Biden administration has helped increase the military power of a large number of authoritarian countries.” 

Caribbean leaders call for ban on civilian assault weapons

At the CARICOM Symposium on Crime, Caribbean heads of state pledged an assault weapons ban and promised to write to the US government to demand a stronger effort to prevent the flow of guns into the region. Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister, Dr. Keith Rowley, said, “The islands in the Caribbean cannot sustain the death rate and the economic destruction that this wanton use of arms and ammunition is raking on us.” The nations of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) also expressed support for the lawsuit launched by the Mexican government seeking to hold US gun-makers accountable for arms trafficking out of the country.

UK Court rules in favour of decision to licence arms sales to the Saudi-led coalition 

The Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) expressed disappointment over the decision by the United Kingdom (UK) High Court that found that the then-Secretary of State for International Trade was not acting irrationally in their decision to licence arms sales to the Saudi-led Coalition. According to CAAT, on 6 June 2023, the UK High Court delivered its verdict following a judicial review brought by the Campaign challenging the government’s decision to renew arms sales to Saudi Arabia, despite the assessments of the likelihood of violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. The Campaign says, “Despite being disappointed by the result, CAAT remains defiant over challenging the arms sales. CAAT argues that the judgement exposes the flaws in the UK export licensing process and remains committed to achieving justice for the Yemeni people whose lives have been devastated by the Saudi-led coalition’s bombing campaign.”

Joint investigation exposes the use of Pegasus spyware in international war context

As reported by Access Now, “A joint investigation between Access Now, CyberHUB-AM, the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto (the Citizen Lab), Amnesty International’s Security Lab, and an independent mobile security researcher Ruben Muradyan, has uncovered hacking of civil society victims in Armenia with NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware. The Armenia spyware victims include a former Human Rights Defender of the Republic of Armenia (the Ombudsperson), two Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) Armenian Service journalists, a United Nations official, a former spokesperson of Armenia’s Foreign Ministry (now an NGO worker), and seven other representatives of Armenian civil society. Circumstantial evidence suggests that the targeting is related to the military conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh (also referred to as the Republic of Artsakh in Armenia) between Armenia and Azerbaijan. This is the first documented evidence of the use of Pegasus spyware in an international war context.”

Applications to Anti-Militarist Organizing Fellowship are open 

Dissenters’ Anti-Militarist Campus Organizing Fellowship is accepting applications until 20 July 2023. This is a 12-week paid program that trains US-based college students on the fundamentals of anti-militarist organising, and provides deep leadership development, coaching, and community to a dedicated cohort of student organisers across the country. This position is available to any currently enrolled college student that identifies as Black, Indigenous or directly impacted by war and militarism. No previous political or organising experience is required.

Recommended resources

Podcast: “Beyond State Violence,” Interdependent Study, 14 June 2023

Radio: “Calls on PM to sign treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons, featuring Katrina Lester,” ABC, 13 June 2023

Video: “America Tested Nuclear Weapons on Itself,” Vice TV, 9 June 2023 

Nico Edwards, "No, Arms Dealers Don't Count as 'Environmentally and Socially Responsible' Investments," Jacobin, 8 June 2023

Ingvild Bode and Tom Watts, “Loitering Munitions and Unpredictability: Autonomy in Weapon Systems and Challenges to Human Control,” Center for War Studies, University of Southern Denmark, 7 June 2023

Susan Aboeid, “Palestinian Forum Highlights Threats of Autonomous Weapons,” Human Rights Watch, 6 June 2023

Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) and The Center for Feminist Foreign Policy (CFFP), "Feminist Interventions: Resisting the Militarisation of the Climate Crisis,” 6 June 2023

Guy Rundle, “Outside In: AUKUS and the Contradictions of Sovereignty,” Arena Quarterly, 2 June 2023

Association for Progressive Communications, “A framework for developing gender-responsive cybersecurity policy,” June 2023

Bonnie Docherty, “Cluster Munition Convention Offers Roadmap for New Autonomous Weapons Treaty,” Just Security, 30 May 2023

León Castellanos-Jankiewic and, Melanie Schneider, “Including the Arms Sector in the EU Corporate Due Diligence Directive,” VerfBlog, 19 May 2023

Kjølv Egeland and Hebatalla Taha, “Experts, activists, and girl bosses of the nuclear apocalypse: feminisms in security discourse,” Zeitschrift für Friedens- und Konfliktforschung, 12 May 2023 

Bridget Conley and B. Arneson, “What prison abolition has to do with international policy?,” Inkstick, 3 May 2023 

Santiago Yarahuán Dodero, “Comprehensive Guide for Youth to Address Climate Change through Disarmament,”The military carbon footprint project, May 2023

Automated Decision Research, “Convergences in state positions on human control,” May 2023

Dave Sweeney, “One Step in a Chain Reaction: How a Grassroots Movement Stopped Nuclear in Australia,” Arena Quarterly, March 2023