2 September 2010
Dear Reaching Critical Will friends and advisors:
There is a great deal of work to be done in the months ahead here at the United Nations. The General Assembly will commence its sixty-fifth session on 14 September, under the presidency of Joseph Deiss of Switzerland. During September, the UN will convene a number of special meetings: a Summit on the Millennium Development Goals from 20–22 September; a high-level meeting on the International Year of Biodiversity; a high-level meeting on the Revitalizing the work of the Conference on Disarmament and Taking Forward Multilateral Disarmament Negotiations on 24 September; a Special Meeting of the General Assembly to mark the Observance of the International Day against Nuclear Tests on 9 September; and of course the General Debate from 23–30 September.
These events are designed for participation by heads of state, ministers, and other high-level officials from the world’s governments. However, there are plenty of opportunities for everyone to engage with all of these issues in ways that emphasizes their interrelation and the necessity for new approaches. Engaging in not simply a matter of contacting your government representatives to express your views. While this important and encouraged, it is also necessary to connect these issues to the people and places that matter most to you and to work with others in your communities and work places to raise awareness and create change.
Reaching Critical Will will be generating materials on many of these events in the next two weeks, which will be sent out in the next edition of the E-News. We encourage everyone to contribute their ideas to these UN events, but also to make sure the ideas circulate among friends, family, coworkers, and more. Ask them how environmental sustainability, economic justice, and nuclear disarmament relate to each other. Discuss how you can contribute to the achievement of these goals. And tell us how we can do a better job helping.
In peace,
Ray Acheson, Project Director
1) High-level meeting on the Conference on Disarmament
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will convene a high-level meeting on the Conference on Disarmament (CD) in New York on 24 September 2010, 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM in the Economic and Social Council Chamber in the North Lawn Building. Information on NGO access is still pending.
The Secretary-General was invited to convene this meeting in the 2010 NPT Review Conference Final Document, “in support of the work of the Conference on Disarmament.” The meeting is open to all UN member states, not just the 65 members of the CD. Delegations are expected to discuss matters related to the core issues on the CD’s agenda and methods for breaking the continuing deadlock.
Reaching Critical Will encourages all interested members of civil society to write to their government representatives encouraging them to use this meeting as an opportunity to push for an updated approach to disarmament negotiations. The CD has been deadlocked for more than a decade; the last treaty it produced was the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in 1996. If the CD is going to continue to operate, creative strategies are needed to get it back to work—and to get it work on the right things. Encourage your foreign ministers and disarmament diplomats to push for mandates and approaches that lead to concrete nuclear disarmament, not just incremental non-proliferation steps. Please also encourage your representatives to call for civil society participation in the meeting. Reaching Critical Will has requested NGO participation in the meeting and vocal support from governments will help!
For more information on the CD, please see Reaching Critical Will’s Guide to the CD in PDF and HTML and our other online resources. For more information on the 24 September meeting, please read RCW’s CD Reports from 17 August and 24 August. You can alsosubscribe to the CD Report to receive these weekly information bulletins in your inbox.
2) UN General Assembly General Debate
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) is consensus-building body, where issues of international peace and security are collectively discussed among all UN member states. Its regular session convenes in September of each year. For two weeks, heads of state, foreign ministers, or other high-level representatives have the opportunity to address the entire international community with their concerns, priorities, and opinions about a variety of topics. This year’s general debate will take place from 23–30 September 2010.
During the general debate, Reaching Critical Will complies all references to disarmament, peace, and security and posts them online bycountry and topic. The statements from the general debate will give us an idea of the issues upon which governments will be focusing during the UNGA First Committee on Disarmament and International Security, which begins on 4 October.
Fact sheet on the General Assembly
To find out more about the General Assembly, check out Reaching Critical Will’s two-page fact sheet (pdf) that explains what the General Assembly is, why its important for disarmament, and how you can make an impact. [Also available in HTML.]
3) UN General Assembly First Committee
The General Assembly’s work on disarmament is conducted through one of its main committees, the First Committee on Disarmament and International Security. The First Committee provides space for each state to discuss their positions on disarmament-related matters, to build consensus on the issues or highlight divergences, and to table and adopt non-binding resolutions. Of course, the First Committee often fails to make good use of its potential, but it provides one of the best opportunities for outreach, education, and advocacy efforts on disarmament and non-proliferation issues.
First Committee 2010: 4 October–1 November
Chairperson: Ambassador Miloš Koterec (Slovakia)
Vice-Chairpersons and Rapporteur: Hossam Eldeen Aly (Egypt), Enrique Ochoa (Mexico), Herman Schaper (Netherlands), Carlos Sorreta (Philippines)
Draft programme of work and timetable
Contributing to the First Committee Monitor
What to do if you're not in New York
Side events
Side events are an excellent way to educate each other, delegations, and members of the Secretariat on a broad range of disarmament and security issues. NGO side events are becoming increasingly popular with both diplomats and civil society.
Every event must be co-sponsored by either the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs or a member state.
If you are seeking sponsorship from UNODA, you must fill out the sponsorship form (doc) and submit it by 24 September to the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs, Information and Outreach Branch: [email protected].
For those NGOs who already have government sponsors and are requesting rooms and technical setup for their event, please fill out the room request form (doc) and submit it to the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs, Information and Outreach Branch:[email protected].
A calendar of events is available online. Please note that dates, times, and locations are tentative and subject to change. Please check back regularly for updates. If you have already booked your event, [email protected] please let RCW know so that we can add your event to the calendar, which is the number one resource for all those looking for updates on the First Committee.
Contributing to the First Committee Monitor
Since 2000, Reaching Critical Will has coordinated a group of NGOs sharing the monitoring and reporting responsibilities in an attempt to make the work of the First Committee more transparent and useful for people not directly involved in the small New York disarmament community. We edit a weekly newsletter, the First Committee Monitor, covering the broad range of issues discussed by the First Committee. The Monitor is distributed to all delegates of the First Committee, and is available on our site and through a free email-based subscription service in both PDF and HTML. It has been hailed by diplomats, UN staffers, and activists as one of the most useful resources produced during the General Assembly.
If your group would like to participate in this important collaboration, [email protected] contact the Project Director today. In the upcoming weeks, we will be holding a meeting to coordinate the various responsibilities required for such an effort.
We also encourage you to use the First Committee Monitor to publicize an important announcement, event, or project hosted by your organization.
1/4 page ad: $40
1/2 page ad: $60
full page ad: $130
back page ad: $180
Run the same ad twice and get $5 off. Run your add three times and get $10 off. Run your ad four times and get $15 off. We accept cheques, cash, PayPal, and wire transfers. Ads can be sent in .jpg, .gif, or .pdf format.
We also accept all forms of disarmament-themed artwork, to be sent in either a .jpg, .gif, or .pdf file. Cartoons, photographs, paintings, doodles, collage, mixed media, and drawings are all welcome.
Submit your advertisement or artwork by sending the [email protected], project director the following information:
your organization's name;
contact person;
email address;
phone number;
type of submission (for ads, please specify the size of the ad, dates for it to run, and payment method); and
the submission
Finally, if you are interested in following events at the First Committee, subscribe to receive the First Committee Monitor in your inbox each Monday morning during October.
What else can civil society do around the First Committee?
Media Outreach: While decisions taken on matters of disarmament and non-proliferation are some of the most critical issues to the world, there remains a lack of adequate coverage of these issues by the mainstream media. Many mainstream media agencies aresubsidiaries of military corporations. These agencies are never going to give positive media coverage to groups and messages that challenge their power. Notice the correspondents in the print, radio, and TV media covering nuclear or foreign policy matters. Build a data base of media contacts and keep a select group of journalists, or your entire list, informed of your activities and analysis of events and developments in this field.
Create your own media: newsletters, radio shows, video documentaries, email lists, webpages. To find out how to get involved with local independent media near you, see: www.indymedia.org.
Organize an event at home: With the First Committee in session, it is a prime teachable moment to continue your own education, outreach and advocacy efforts at home. To find out what disarmament NGOs are working in your area, check our NGO contact database.
Reach out to your representatives: Contact your representatives in New York and in your capital. Fax or email them letters urging them to support disarmament-focused resolutions. Offer them resources for more information and demand a response. For more information on writing a letter, see RCW’s action tips. Find out who represents you at our Government Contacts database.
Organize a meeting with your representatives; listen to their opinion on nuclear issues and share yours. Find out who represents you at our Government Contacts database.
4) Government positions on a nuclear weapons convention
At the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference this May, more than 130 governments called for negotiations to begin on a comprehensive convention outlawing nuclear weapons.
In light of the heightened level of support for a Nuclear Weapons Convention, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has produced a detailed guide to government positions on a convention.
They employ a star system to assess the level of support:
Four stars — very supportive
Three stars — supportive
Two stars — lukewarm
One star — sceptical
The guide can be downloaded here.
It will be updated on a regular basis as more states join the growing call for a Nuclear Weapons Convention. We welcome comments, clarifications and additional information from governments, non-government organizations and individuals.
5) IPPNW calls for a ban on uranium mining
The International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) adopted a resolution at its International Council meeting on Sunday in Basel, Switzerland, calling for a ban on uranium mining and the production of yellowcake (uranium oxide). The resolution described both processes as “irresponsible” and “a grave threat to health and to the environment”.
The resolution also describes uranium mining and yellowcake production as a “violation of human rights”. The right to life, liberty and security, to physical integrity, self-determination, the protection of human dignity, the right to clean water are just some of the rights that are afflicted by uranium mining and its processes, say the doctors.
The resolution follows on from a conference entitled “Sacred Lands, Poisoned People” held on August 26th, also in Basel, on uranium mining. Activists from all of the major mining regions around the world, many of them representing indigenous peoples, gathered together and exchanged information collated on health effects and damage to the environment. As a result of this data, representatives from the German and Swiss IPPNW affiliates submitted a resolution calling for a ban to the bi-annual meeting of the international IPPNW federation.
The findings of the conference in Basel show that uranium mining contaminates groundwater and radioactivity remains in the heaps, tailings and evaporation ponds. Uranium and its radioactive decay elements are highly toxic. They attack inner organs and the respiratory system. Scientific studies presented show that the following diseases are caused by exposition to radon gas, uranium and uranium’s decay elements: Bronchial and lung cancer; cancer of the bone marrow, stomach, liver, intestine, gall bladder, kidneys and skin, leukemia, other blood diseases, psychological disorders and birth defects.
IPPNW sees the connection to the proliferation of nuclear weapons as particularly relevant to their work. Also, an end to the practice of uranium mining would accelerate the abandonment of nuclear energy and increase pressure to change over to renewable energies.
Press Contact: Anne Tritschler, Tel.: 030-698074-14
German affiliate of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War/Physicians for Social Responsibility, Körtestr. 10, 10967 Berlin, Germany, www.ippnw.de
6) Upcoming Events
Group of governmental experts on the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), second session, 30 August–3 September 2010
The group of governmental experts (GGE) will continue its negotiations on a draft protocol on cluster munitions at its second session in Geneva. The GGE, chaired by Minister Jesus S. Domingo of the Philippines, is to “address urgently the humanitarian impact of cluster munitions, while striking a balance between military and humanitarian considerations.” For more information, see the website of the UN Office at Geneva.
CCM Preparatory Meeting on First Meeting of States Parties, 6 September 2010
In advance of the First Meeting of States Parties of the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM), to be held in Laos in November, a Preparatory Meeting chaired by the delegation of Ireland will be held in Geneva. Documents will be available on the UN Office at Geneva webpage.
Panel Discussion: “Nuclear Weapons: Security or Survival?”, 8 September 2010
Sponsored by Columbia University School of Social Work and the Mission of the Republic of Kazakhstan, 12:00–14:00, Italian Academy, Columbia University in the City of New York, 1161 Amsterdam Avenue (between 116 and 118th Streets). Featuring Her Excellency Mme Byrganym Aitimova, Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the United Nations in New York; Mr. Tibor Tóth of the CTBTO, Dr. Randy Rydell of UNODA; and Mr. Jonathan Granoff of the Global Security Institute. You must register in advance in attend this event.
Special Meeting of the General Assembly to mark the Observance of the International Day against Nuclear Tests, 9 September 2010
Dr. Ali Treki, President of the 64th session of the General Assembly will convene a meeting to observe the first International Day against Nuclear Tests. Statements will be delivered by Mr. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations; Mr. Kanat Sauderbayev, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan; Mr. Tibor Tóth, Executive Secretary of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO); Mr. Geoffrey Shaw, Representative of the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the United Nations; and Member States to the United Nations. During the meeting, a documentary “Embrace a World Free of Nuclear Weapons”, specially created for the Day, will be shown. All delegations and civil society organizations affiliated to the United Nations are cordially invited. Begins at 10:00, General Assembly Hall, UN Headquarters, New York.
Prioritizing the NPT Action Plan, 9 September 2010
A high-level workshop to discuss the Final Document of the 2010 NPT Review Conference, which has outlined an ambitious 64-point action plan, to operationalize and identify leadership opportunities in international efforts towards disarmament and non-proliferation. Featuring: Ambassador Libran N. Cabactulan of the Philippines; Ambassador Sergio Duarte, High Representative for Disarmament Affairs; Ambassador Tibor Tóth of the CTBTO; Ambassador Susan F. Burk of the United States; and Ambassador Maged A. Abdelaziz of Egypt. 15:00–17:30, UN Headquarters, North Lawn Building, Conference Room 3. UN Grounds Pass required. Those without UN passes interested in attending should contact [email protected].
Protest against ICBM test launch, 14 September 2010
There will be an ICBM Minuteman III test launch from Vandenberg to Kwajalein atoll in the Marshall Islands set for the early morning hours of 15 September. There will be a protest on 14 September at 11:55 pm (midnight). There will be a charter bus (the Green Tortoise, with bunks for sleeping), going down in the evening and returning to the Bay area (with stops to pick up people in Palo Alto, Salinas and even Santa Cruz). $50 is asked toward the cost but there is a WILPF grant and those who wish to come can contribute whatever they can afford; all Catholic Workers are free. Contact: MacGregor Eddy, [email protected], see www.macgregoreddy.com for details.
7) Featured News
UNESCO declares Bikini Atoll a World Heritage Site
In August, the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. The Bikini Atoll was the site of US atomic weapons testing between 1946 and 1954. The US conducted 67 nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands, 23 of them in Bikini. This equates 7000 times the force of the Hiroshima bomb. The Mayor of Bikin Atoll notes: “The experience of nuclear testing, the displacement of our people from our homeland and the devastating contamination of our country is a story that has been repeated in many places around the world. As a World Heritage site, Bikini Atoll will forever tell the story of this period for human history.” Source: “Bikini Atoll in Marshall Islands Chosen as World Heritage Site,” Yokwe Online, 19 August 2010.
India-Japan civil nuclear cooperation deal delayed because of internal Japanese pressure
Talks between India and Japan on a civil nuclear cooperation agreement have run into trouble after this year’s Nagasaki peace declaration specifically criticised the Japanese government for launching negotiations with India. The Nagasaki declaration, issued by the city’s Mayor Taue on 9 August to mark the US dropping of the atom bomb on the city, specifically mentioned the talks with India: “We harbour profound distrust of the [Japanese] government’s past responses that have turned the three Non-Nuclear Principles into a mere formality. Moreover, the government has recently been promoting negotiations on a nuclear agreement with India, a non-NPT member country with nuclear weapons. This means that a nation that has suffered atomic bombings itself is now severely weakening the NPT regime, which is beyond intolerable.” Not just that, the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki even met the Japanese Prime Minister on the issue and asked him to call off the talks unless India joins the NPT. Tokyo has subsequently conveyed that New Delhi’s non-proliferation commitments to Washington as per the Indo-US 123 agreement are not enough for a Japan-India deal. Source: “Tokyo to Delhi: We need more assurances for n-deal,” The Indian Express, 17 August 2010.
However, Tokyo will likely face counter-pressure from the United States, because two major US firms in the nuclear business, General Electric and Westinghouse, are either partly or wholly owned by Japanese companies and will not be able to start selling India technology unless Japan concludes its own bilateral nuclear pact with India. Source: “US nuke business will have to wait for Japan,” The Asian Age, 23 August 2010.
Debate continues over cost of Trident modernization in the United Kingdom
The former leader of the Liberal Democrats party in the UK said Trident renewal should be considered in a wider study of the country's military operations. The $30 billion plan to modernize Trident was left out of the UK's comprehensive defence review, but Menzies Campbell argued that it’s time to put Trident into the proper strategic, political, and economic context. Source: “Former British Lib Dem Leader Wants Defense Review to Include Trident,” Global Security Newswire, 20 August 2010.
Activists arrested at Kansas City nuclear weapons facility
On 16 August, fourteen activists were arrested after blocking an earth moving vehicle on the site of a proposed new nuclear weapons production facility. The new plant, which will make non-nuclear parts for nuclear weapons, is set to be the nation’s first new major nuclear weapons production facility in 32 years. Currently a part of the Bannister Federal Complex, located about 13 miles south of the city’s downtown area, the Kansas City Plant is responsible for the production and assembly of approximately 85 percent of the non-nuclear components for the US nuclear arsenal. The plant is due to be relocated in 2012 to the “more modern facility.” The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a division of the U.S. Department of Energy, has said the new facility will carry an estimated price tag of $673 million for construction and $1.2 billion over the next 20 years. Source: Joshua J. McElwee, “Catholic activists arrested at Kansas City nuclear weapons facility,” National Catholic Reporter, 17 August 2010.
8) Recommended Reading
Andrew Lichterman, “Disarmament work and justice in a divided world,” DisarmamentActivist.org, 2 July 2010.
Russ Wellen, “Shooting an Arrow at the Beating Heart of Nuclear Weapons,” The Faster Times, 24 August 2010.