July 2024 E-News
In the last months, we have seen ever more evidence of the inevitable result of relentless investments in militarism: the Israeli war against Palestinians continues in Gaza, as do the arms transfers fuelling this genocide; nuclear rhetoric is on the rise amidst the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Summit, Russia’s nuclear drills and comments about the use of nuclear weapons, and recent developments in the Australia-United Kingdom-United States (AUKUS) military alliance; and technology and arms companies continue to profit from artificial intelligence (AI) while destroying the planet and jeopardising energy transition goals. The upcoming disarmament conferences happening in July and August provide an opportunity to raise these concerns and call for action from states that have been ignoring their disarmament commitments. This edition of the E-News provides an overview of the recent developments, as well as resources and information to prepare for the upcoming meetings on nuclear weapons, the arms trade, autonomous weapons, and more.
In this edition:
- Upcoming disarmament meetings
- Recently concluded disarmament meetings
- Stop Arming Israel
- Groups organise against NATO ahead of 75th anniversary summit
- Mobilising to Stop AUKUS
- Gender and Disarmament database: Recommendation of the Month
- Upcoming events
- Featured News
- Recommended Resources
2024 Non-Proliferation Treaty Preparatory Committee
The Preparatory Committee for the 2026 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) is scheduled to hold its second session from 22 July to 2 August 2024 in Geneva, Switzerland. Modalities for civil society participation are outlined in this information note, as well as on RCW website. Information regarding side events is also available on the RCW website.
Ahead of the Conference, Reaching Critical Will published an updated NPT Briefing Book that provides an overview of critical issues and offers recommendations to governments for the PrepCom and beyond. It provides information on the NPT and a brief history of past review cycles, and covers topics such as nuclear disarmament; the humanitarian impacts of nuclear weapons; nuclear weapon modernisation and spending; doctrines, transparency, and nuclear sharing; nuclear threats and risks; non-proliferation; the Middle East weapon of mass destruction free zone; AUKUS and nuclear submarines; nuclear energy; and gender and intersectionality.
Group of Governmental Experts on further practical measures for the prevention of an arms race in outer space
The Group of governmental experts on further practical measures for the prevention of an arms race in outer space (GGE on PAROS) is meeting for its second session on 5–16 August in Geneva, Switzerland.
Tenth Conference of States Parties to the Arms Trade Treaty
The Tenth Conference of States Parties (CSP10) to the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) is scheduled to take place in Geneva, Switzerland, from 19–23 August 2024. Check out RCW’s website for documents and statements from the Working Groups and Informal Preparatory Meeting, as well as RCW’s Briefing Paper to ATT Delegations on Arms Transfers to Israel.
Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems
The Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (GGE on LAWS) is meeting for its second session of the year from 26–30 August 2024 in Geneva, Switzerland. To learn about what was discussed in the first session, you can read our CCW Report. Subscribe to receive coverage of the upcoming session!
Recently concluded disarmament meetings
Action on small arms and light weapons at the UN
From 17–28 June, states and civil society gathered at the UN in New York for the Fourth Review Conference of the UN Programme of Action on the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons. The RevCon adopted an outcome document mostly by consensus, after some last minute drama on the final day. The document missed its stride on some things, but made some important gains on others. Check out our Small Arms Monitor for coverage of the meeting, and find all available documents and statements on our website.
Open-ended working group on ICTs
The Open-Ended Working Group on Information and Communication Technologies is meeting for its eighth substantive session on 8–12 July 2024 in New York. Check out our website for information on previous sessions, and the UNODA website for documents and information on the current session.
The organisation Save the Children warned that “up to 21,000 children are estimated to be missing in the chaos of the war in Gaza, many trapped beneath rubble, detained, buried in unmarked graves, or lost from their families.” UN Experts have also declared that famine has spread throughout Gaza strip. A recent study published in the journal Lancet statedthat the accumulative effects of Israel’s war on Gaza could mean the true death toll could reach more than 186,000 people.
A group of UN experts have called on states and companies to end arms transfers to Israel immediately, or risk responsibility for human rights violations. The experts said that the “transfer of weapons and ammunition to Israel may constitute serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian laws and risk State complicity in international crimes, possibly including genocide.” They also warned that arms manufacturers supplying Israel—including BAE Systems, Boeing, Caterpillar, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Oshkosh, 
Rheinmetall AG, Rolls-Royce Power Systems, RTX, and ThyssenKrupp—also risk being complicit in serious violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law.
Norway’s largest private pension fund, KLP, announced the decision to divest from Caterpillar over concerns about its role in human rights abuses in occupied Palestine. In contrast, a report titled “Business as usual: Analysis of the Spanish arms trade 2022-2023 and arguments for an arms embargo on Israel”, found that Spain has awarded contracts worth 1.027 billion euros to Israeli companies and their subsidiaries in Spain since 7 October. (Image credit: @CentreDelas)
Groups organise against NATO ahead of 75th anniversary summit
On 9 July, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) leaders met in Washington, DC, for a 75th anniversary summit. One of the topics discussed was nuclear deterrence. In advance of the Summit, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) gathered signatures from former NATO member presidents, prime ministers, foreign and defence ministers, as well as former senior military leaders from across the alliance. In their statement, these former officials argue: “In the light of the heightened threat of nuclear war, it would be a grave mistake for NATO’s leaders to conclude that nuclear weapons are more important than ever for Europe’s defence.” They call on NATO to reduce nuclear tensions, including by removing US nuclear weapons from Europe. The letter also challenges nuclear deterrence, recognising it is an obstacle to NATO’s ambition of creating a “security environment for a world without nuclear weapons.”
To coincide with the Summit, Transnational Institute, Tipping Point North South, and Stop Wapenhandel launched a report showing that NATO’s military spending increases greenhouse gas emissions, diverts critical finance from climate action, and consolidates an arms trade that fuels instability during climate breakdown. They found that NATO member states’ 2023 military budgets produced some 233m metric tonnes of greenhouse gas, which is more than the total annual greenhouse gas emissions of Colombia or Qatar.
Several groups have been protesting NATO ahead of the Summit. Activists organised a rally in front of the White House calling for peace. WILPF Canada wrote a “Declaration for Peace,” rejecting NATO's warmongering and demanding a world built on peace, not war blocs. For a critical analysis on NATO’s policies, check out this publication from 2021 organised by NATO Watch around the NATO Reflection Group Report. (Image credit: https://nonatoyespeace.org/)
In another step under the Australia-United Kingdom-United States (AUKUS) military alliance, Australian submarine workers have departed for Pearl Harbor in the United States to receive training in the sustainment of nuclear powered submarines. Additionally, Australian Assistant Minister for Defence Matt Thistlethwaite is travelling to the US for the Australian American Leadership Dialogue from 8 to 12 July, where he is expected to discuss the AUKUS trilaterial agreement. The West Australian has also reported that hundreds of military housing properties will be built around Rockingham to help cope with the region’s AUKUS-fuelled population growth.
To learn more about the problems related to the AUKUS alliance, check out the AUKUS Beyond Borders webinar and booklet, hosted and published by the Nuclear Truth Project. Also see Ray Acheson’s article about AUKUS in CounterPunch
Gender and Disarmament database: Recommendation of the Month
Our recommendation of the month is the article “The patriarchal militarism of NATO’s reflection group,” by Ray Acheson. It addresses the regressive views of the NATO Reflection Group report on the several issues, including human security and the so-called Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda. “Overall, the report embraces patriarchal approaches to ‘security’, dissention within NATO and where the alliance should go from here. The recommendations further entrench NATO members in a militarist pursuit of dominance, rather than true community and cooperation either internally or internationally,” writes Acheson.
The Gender and Disarmament Database, created and maintained by Reaching Critical Will, features a wide range of resources such as reports, articles, books and book chapters, policy documents, podcasts, legislation, and UN documents. The database allows the exploration of relevant resources based on their references to distinctive gender aspects in disarmament, such as gender-based violence, gender norms, or gender diversity, and different related topics or types of weapon systems. It currently contains more than 800 resources, and suggestions of new additions can be sent to disarm[at]WILPF[dot]com.
Conferences
Preparatory Committee for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference
22 July–2 August | Geneva, Switzerland
Second Session of the Group of Governmental Experts on further practical measures for the prevention of an arms race in outer space
5–16 August 2024 | Geneva, Switzerland
Tenth Conference of States Parties to the Arms Trade Treaty
19–23 August 2024 | Geneva, Switzerland
Second Session of the Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems
26–30 August 2024 | Geneva, Switzerland
Other events
Book Club: Atomic Steppe
15 July 2024 | Online
Updated cost for the Sentinel programme reaches 160 billion USD
Reuteurs reports that the official figures for the Air Force programme to replace the US intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) has ballooned to about 160 billion USD from 95.8 billion USD. Last year, Princeton University’s Program on Science and Global Security worked on a two-year project together with the Nuclear Princeton Native American student group and Columbia University’s School of Journalism, and in partnership with Scientific American, to investigate the human and environmental risks associated with the Sentinel missile program. Check out their website The Missiles on Our Land to learn more about the project and their findings.
Fights over compensation for nuclear harm continue in the United States
The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) offers financial compensation to people harmed during nuclear weapon testing and uranium mining. Infamously, it does not include those impacted by the Trinity test of 16 July 1945. RECA was extended for two years in 2022, and legislation to expand it to include New Mexicans and others affected by the Trinity test was added by senators as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act in September 2023. However, the House leadership removed this amendment in its version of the Act in December 2023. In June 2024, Congress allowed RECA to expire entirely, though activists continue to push for both an extension and an expansion of the Act. As ICAN notes, the amount the US government puts toward addressing the harmful legacy of its nuclear weapons pales in comparison with the billions it spends every year on its nuclear arsenal.
Russia conducts drills with nuclear missile launchers
In early July, Reuters reported that Russia conducted drills involving mobile nuclear missile launchers, less than a month after it held tactical nuclear weapons deployment exercises with Belarus. Last month, Putin declared he doesn’t need nuclear weapons to achieve his goals in Ukraine, but that it would be wrong for the West to assume that Russia will never use them. “It mustn’t be treated in a light, superficial way,” he said in June, reaffirming that Russia’s nuclear doctrine calls for using nuclear weapons in cases of threat to its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Maritime exercise takes place in Hawai’i despite opposition
Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) is the world's largest biennial international maritime exercise, hosted by the US Indo-Pacific Fleet (formally the Pacific Fleet) in Hawai'i. This year will be the 29th RIMPAC and will bring together "approximately 29 nations, 40 surface ships, three submarines, 14 national land forces, over 150 aircraft and more than 25,000 personnel,” which “will train and operate in and around the Hawaiian Islands during the exercise, which runs until Aug. 1," according to US RIMPAC. The Protecting Oceania coalition has issued a statement on the issue opposing RIMPAC and called on all countries, especially those that have renounced Israel’s genocide of Palestinians, to pull their militaries out of the exercises. “We oppose turning Hawaiʻi’s lands and waters into training grounds for imperial and genocidal regimes that will engage in ocean, ground, and amphibious assaults,” said the statement. “We stand against the violence RIMPAC will bring to the islands as well as the imperial violence it has and will continue to promote and naturalize around the world.”
Brazilian Ambassador and nuclear disarmament advocate passes away
On Monday, 8 July, Ambassador Sérgio Queiroz Duarte passed away. In 2005, he was elected president of the Seventh Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Two years later, he was appointed by the then-UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, as the UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, a position he held until 2012. Between 2017 and 2024, he chaired the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, an international organisation dedicated to combating nuclear proliferation. RCW sends deep condolences to Amb. Sérgio Duartes' family and friends.
100 cities in Spain call for government to join the TPNW
100 cities in Spain have joined the ICAN cities appeal calling on their government to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Hundreds of cities around the world have already joined the appeal; you can check the full list here.
US Mayors for Peace adopts resolution calling for dialogue in a time of nuclear danger
On 23 June the United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) adopted a new resolution titled, “The Imperative of Dialogue in a Time of Acute Nuclear Dangers," which calls on member cities to take action at the municipal level, to raise public awareness of the growing dangers of wars among nuclear-armed states, the humanitarian and financial impacts of nuclear weapons, and the urgent need for good faith US leadership in negotiating the global elimination of nuclear weapons.
Movie about nuclear bomb survivor available in the US
The Vow from Hiroshima, a bio-pic of Setsuko Thurlow and her role in the creation of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, is now edited to a 55 min version and available in the USA, streaming on PBS.
Activists arrested for protesting at airbase in Germany
Susan Crane, from California, United States, began her 229-days prison sentence on 4 June for several for protesting against US nuclear weapons stationed at Germany’s Büchel airbase. Another anti-nuclear weapons activist, Susan van der Hijden, from the Netherlands, began her alternative prison sentence for the same offense also on 4 June. She had already received a prison sentence of 115 daily rates at the end of April and reported to Rohrbach Prison together with Susan Crane.
Lithuania considers withdrawing from Convention on Cluster Munitions
On 3 July 2024, the Lithuanian government officially requested its parliament to denounce the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM). Lithuania joined the CCM in 2011, but Lithuanian officials have been calling for withdrawal since mid-2023. The Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) said it is deeply alarmed by this recent development and has repeatedly called on Lithuania to refrain from taking this dangerous and unprecedented decision. “This potential move could have far-reaching consequences for global efforts to eradicate these indiscriminate weapons and for humanitarian disarmament more broadly,” said the Coalition.
Air strikes multiply in Myanmar amidst reckless’ shipments of jet fuel
Amnesty International has documented new shipments of aviation fuel to Myanmar despite global calls to deprive the country’s military of the resources it needs to carry out unlawful air strikes. The organisation notes that in June 2024 the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar reported that military air strikes against civilian targets in Myanmar have increased five-fold in the first half of this year, killing and injuring dozens of civilians.
Lockheed Martin secures 4.5 billion USD multi-year contract with the US Army
The US Army has awarded Lockheed Martin a multi-year contract worth 4.5 billion USD for its “air defence” Patriot Missiles system. According to Reuters, the contract covers 870 PAC-3 MSE missiles and associated hardware, which are being used in the war in Ukraine.
CEO of arms manufacturer profits from Gaza war
The Byline Times reports that since the Hamas’ attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, BAE Systems, the UK’s largest arms manufacturer, has seen its share price go up by some 31 percent, hitting 1,288 GBP a share at the time of writing. Since then, Charles Woodburn, the CEO of the BAE Systems, has sold off more than 10 million GBP worth of shares in his company in order to buy a property.
AI data centers are causing havoc on global power systems
Bloomberg reports that “the almost overnight surge in electricity demand from data centers is now outstripping the available power supply in many parts of the world, according to interviews with data center operators, energy providers and tech executives.” This raises concerns of price increases for those living in the densest data center markets and threatens energy transition plans.”In some countries, including Saudi Arabia, Ireland and Malaysia, the energy required to run all the data centers they plan to build at full capacity exceeds the available supply of renewable energy,” notes Bloomberg. Among other things, this has huge implications for the pursuit of the development of AI weapons and other autonomous weapon systems.
Ray Acheson, “Misogyny and the Attacks on Bodily Autonomy,” CounterPunch, 30 June 2024
Podcast: “Between allure and need: Mercenaries in the Sahel,” WILPF, 27 June 2024
Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa, “How African Countries Govern National Artificial Intelligence Solutions,” ICT Works, 27 June 2024
William Hartung, “An AI Hell on Earth,” Foreign Policy in Focus, 25 June 2024
Allison Pytlak, Shreya Lad, and James Siebens, “US Department of State Releases International Cyberspace and Digital Strategy,” Stimson Center, 25 June 2024
Susan Crane and Susan van der Hijden, “Vigil Behind Bars – For a Disarmed World,” Catholic Worker Amsterdam, 19 June 2024
Webinar: “AUKUS in Conversation,” Nuclear Truth Project, 18 June 2024
“The U.S. Bombings that ended World War II didn’t mark the close of atomic warfare. They were just the beginning.” The New York Times, June 2024