Statements by RCW
WILPF statement to the UN conference to negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading to their elimination
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)
Statement to the UN conference to negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading to their elimination, Topic 2
Delivered by Ray Acheson, Director of Reaching Critical Will
29 March 2017
Thank you Madame/Mr. President,
Thank you for this opportunity to address this conference. WILPF has prepared a paper on principles, prohibitions, and positive obligations of a treaty banning nuclear weapons. After listening closely to interventions from delegations this morning, I would like to comment on a few of the prohibitions and positive obligations.
Prohibitions
In order to be effective as a prohibition treaty that leads to the elimination of nuclear weapons, the core prohibitions the treaty should be as clear and comprehensive as possible. It should draw upon other treaties prohibiting weapons but also needs to be mindful of the existing rules governing nuclear weapons, as well as specific...
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WILPF statement on multidimensional insecurity and its impacts on Libyan women
The following statement was submitted by WILPF to the 34th session of the UN Human Rights Council (27 February to 24 March) under Item 10: Technical assistance and capacity-building, Interactive dialogue on the situation of human rights in Libya. إضغط هنا لقراءة البيان الخطي باللغة العربية After the 2011 NATO military operation to remove Qadhafi from power, there was a brief moment of hope for a new, inclusive and democratic country. Libya has, however, not only been rendered internally chaotic and dysfunctional, it has become: a target of extended aerial bombardment by the United States,[1] Egypt,[2] and possibly France[3]; a site of Islamic extremism and home to an apparent offshoot of Daesh (ISIS); a corridor for people traffickers, and a destination for desperate refugees and migrants attempting to flee to Europe;[4] and a source of weapons flows that have destabilised fragile internal truces, Libya’s neighbours and the region.[5] The use of explosive weapons in populated...
WILPF statement to UN member states on the Commission on the Status of Women and the US government's travel ban
The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is the principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women. A declared principle, made during its first session in 1947, is: “to raise the status of women, irrespective of nationality, race, language or religion, to equality with men in all fields of human enterprise, and to eliminate all discrimination against women in the provisions of statutory law, in legal maxims or rules, or in interpretation of customary law.” Each year WILPF brings women from all over the world to participate in the annual session in New York. In so doing, we strengthen the multilateral system and assist in upholding the Charter of the UN itself. The Charter recognises the significant role played by civil society in the work of the UN by making provision for formal participation of NGOs in UN processes. On 27 January 2017, the US President issued an executive order banning all entry to the...
WILPF statement: Aleppo is bidding humanity goodbye
14 December 2016 (Read this statement in Arabic) If you are active on Twitter or Facebook and follow global news, this is probably not the first text you have read on what is currently happening in Aleppo. But if it is, then brace yourself for the worst before reading what follows. The northern Syrian city of Aleppo has been a key battleground in the conflict between the warring factions in Syria for the past four years. However, the latest developments since July 2016 have prompted a series of consecutive turning points in the city’s modern history, leading to its catastrophic destruction this week. Since the Syrian dictator and his foreign allies, including Russia and Iran, firmly encircled the eastern part of the city last September, Aleppo has been witnessing the most relentless, indiscriminate aerial bombardment since the peaceful revolution metastasised into a bloody conflict. Local sources and international reports have drawn out a systematic pattern of explosive weapon...
WILPF statement to the Fifth CCW Review Conference
The following statement was delivered by Ray Acheson, Director of Reaching Critical Will programme of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, at the Fifth Review Conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) in Geneva on 12 December 2016. As we gather here in Geneva, we are witness to the destruction of entire cities, communities, and societies elsewhere. The worst example of this right now is Aleppo. This city has seen the relentless use of explosive weapons in populated areas, leading to the destruction of hospitals and homes. Prohibited or restricted weapons such as incendiary weapons, chemical weapons, and cluster munitions have been used. No humanitarian aid has reached the area since July 2016. There are about 275,000 civilians besieged in eastern Aleppo, including 100,000 children. Leaflets warning civilians that they will be annihilated if they stay are being dropped and there is widespread concern about the impact of potentially 200,000...
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WILPF statement on the report of the Commission of Inquiry on Syria
WILPF welcomes the Commission of Inquiry’s continued efforts to highlight the grave human rights situation in Syria but remains concerned about the Syrian government’s persistent denial of access into its territory. We greatly recognise the integration of some gendered analysis into the Commission’s report to shed the light on the severe and disproportionate impact of the conflict on women. WILPF has detailed this impact in a joint submission with Syrian women’s grassroots organisations for the UPR of Syria.[1] We strongly encourage the Commission to develop the gendered analysis and integrate it in all its future reports, including to reflect how the armed conflict undermines women’s social, political and economic participation in a society already suffering from discrimination, patriarchy and gender-based violence. We remain particularly alarmed by the pattern of systematic and deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure, especially medical facilities and personnel. Mr....
WILPF statement on the use of weapons and arms transfers to parties in the conflict in Yemen
WILPF has been following the situation in Yemen with great concern. As the High Commissioner states in his report on Yemen to this Council session,[1] the situation has deteriorated significantly in the past year. Eighty per cent of the population is in urgent need of humanitarian assistance[2] and more than 2.5 million people have been displaced.[3] In such context, women and girls often suffer gravely and disproportionately due to forced displacement, sexual violence, trafficking, lack of access to health care, including sexual and reproductive health, and to victim and survivor assistance.[4] Hospitals, schools, markets, and houses have been targeted by explosive weapons. The large destructive radius of such weapons means that even the striking of military targets within a populated area has caused the destruction or damaging of civilian infrastructure, such as health and education facilities and houses.[5] Cluster munitions, which were banned in 2008 by a widely...
WILPF Statement to the Second Conference of States Parties to the Arms Trade Treaty, Treaty Implementation
As peace talks over the conflict in Yemen collapsed, Saudi Arabia unleashed a new wave of shocking and unacceptable bombing raids in populated areas in Yemen, destroying hospitals, schools, markets, and homes. This has been going on for a year and a half. Several UN bodies have described the bombing as in violation of international humanitarian law and human rights law. Médecins Sans Frontières and the International Committee of Red Cross have had to start a campaign, Not A Target, to explain that hospitals must not be attacked during war. Yet several ATT states parties and signatories continue to transfer arms to Saudi Arabia. Campaign Against Arms Trade found that by April 2016 the UK government had issued 122 licences for military exports to Saudi Arabia since it began its military intervention in Yemen, signing off on £3.3 billion of arms exports in the first year of the war. In June 2015, after the intervention began, France signed deals with Saudi Arabia worth $12 billion,...
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WILPF Statement to the Conference of States Parties to the Arms Trade Treaty, General Debate
23 August 2016 The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom welcomes the opportunity to address the Second Conference of States Parties to the Arms Trade Treaty. We participated in the negotiation of the Treaty as a feminist peace organisation advocating for a Treaty that would prevent humanitarian harm and confront the global culture of violence, including the access and use of weapons by young men and the reinforcement of violent masculinities. Since then, we have maintained that this is the most important guiding principle for states’ implementation efforts. Thus we hope that this meeting provides states, international organisations, and civil society with the opportunity to address challenges in the Treaty’s implementation, establish comprehensive and transparent reporting procedures for the arms trade, and above all challenge those that profit from war and violence instead of preventing humanitarian harm. There is much work to be done at CSP2, and decisions around...
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WILPF Statement to the Second Conference of States Parties to the Arms Trade Treaty, General Debate
23 August 2016 The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom welcomes the opportunity to address the Second Conference of States Parties to the Arms Trade Treaty. We participated in the negotiation of the Treaty as a feminist peace organisation advocating for a Treaty that would prevent humanitarian harm and confront the global culture of violence, including the access and use of weapons by young men and the reinforcement of violent masculinities. Since then, we have maintained that this is the most important guiding principle for states’ implementation efforts. Thus we hope that this meeting provides states, international organisations, and civil society with the opportunity to address challenges in the Treaty’s implementation, establish comprehensive and transparent reporting procedures for the arms trade, and above all challenge those that profit from war and violence instead of preventing humanitarian harm. There is much work to be done at CSP2, and decisions around...
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WILPF Statement to the May 2016 session of the open-ended working group on nuclear disarmament
9 May 2016 Thank you Chairperson, I’m speaking on behalf of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, which is a partner organisation of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). We have heard some excellent interventions today discussing potential elements for a legally binding prohibition on nuclear weapons. Together with Article 36, we submitted a working paper to this OEWG, NGO/3, which is based on a report we prepared in 2014. It looks at possible principles, elements, effects, and processes for banning nuclear weapons. I’d like to draw on that working paper in responding to some of the comments made by states here today. Comprehensive prohibitions Several delegations have emphasised the importance of prohibiting not just use of nuclear weapons but their possession and all relevant nuclear weapon related activities. In our conception of such an instrument, a ban treaty should prohibit the use, development, production, stockpiling, transfer,...
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WILPF Statement to the 2016 CCW meeting of experts on lethal autonomous weapon systems
This statement was delivered by Ray Acheson, Director of Reaching Critical Will at the 2016 CCW meeting of experts on lethal autonomous weapon systems in Geneva on 12 April 2016. The PDF is available for download. Writing in the mid-20th century, the philosopher Simone Weil called for the examination of technology and means of warfare rather than just the ends pursued by war. She argued that to understand the consequences of war, we need to analyse the social relations that are implied by our instruments of violence. With these discussions at the UN on lethal autonomous weapon systems, we have the opportunity to ask questions about this technology before it is fully developed or deployed. We know that research and development is ongoing. We have seen some precursors tested and used. But we still have the chance to interrogate—and prevent—the consequences of fully mechanising our means of violence and war. Two aspects of Weil’s approach are relevant for our discussions about...
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WILPF Statement to the CCW Meeting of High Contracting Parties
We meet again in Geneva as civilians are dying around the world from the use of conventional weapons. Civilian deaths and injuries from the use of explosive weapons in populated areas have gone up for the third year in a row. Prohibited weapons such as cluster munitions have been used in recent conflicts. Explosive remnants of war continue to kill civilians long after conflicts have ended. Meanwhile, profits continue to soar from the design, manufacture, and sale of ever more weapons. The bombs and other explosive weapons killing civilians in armed conflicts around the world should be controlled by international law and moral conscience. Instead, they are sold for profit to those who use them for political gain. Those selling the weapons are complicit in the deaths of civilians; the destruction of their villages, towns, and cities; and the mass displacement that follows. There seems to be a sense of entitlement from some countries to produce, use, and sell weapons as they wish....
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Statement on gender and disarmament to the UN General Assembly First Committee
On 16 October 2015, Reaching Critical Will's Director Ray Acheson delivered the following statement to the UN General Assembly First Committee on Disarmament and International Security. The statement was endorsed by a large number of civil society organisations, listed at the end. The negative impacts on our society of patriarchy and male privilege are perhaps nowhere more pervasive and pernicious than in the field of weapons, war, and militarism. By consequence, much of the discussion on disarmament perpetuates the highly problematic gender constructions of men who are violent and powerful and women that are vulnerable and need to be protected. Gender perspectives in disarmament, peace, and security must be about exposing and challenging this state of affairs, not about including more women in the existing systems of structural inequalities and violent masculinities. Earlier this week, the UN Security Council convened an open debate for the fifteenth anniversary of resolution...
Statement to the UN commemoration of the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons
30 September 2015, New York Delivered by Ray Acheson of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom on behalf of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) Last month marked the 70th anniversary of the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The hibakusha, the survivors of these bombings, demand nuclear abolition. So do the victims and survivors of the 2000 nuclear tests around the world, who have had their lives changed forever and over generations. This call is supported by the majority of the world’s governments and peoples. Yet the states that wield nuclear weapons continue to do so, just as they continue to pour billions of dollars into the maintenance and modernisation of these weapons of terror. These states protest that the reemerging humanitarian and moral discourse and approach to nuclear weapons is a distraction from what they see as the real work of disarmament—yet they refuse to engage in disarmament negotiations themselves. This...
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WILPF Statement to the 2015 NPT Review Conference
Thank you, Chair.
This morning states began their work nuclear disarmament in Main Committee I. We are looking forward to an intensive debate about how to achieve the full objectives of article VI in this body. As an NGO that monitors implementation of NPT agreements, we have to say that there is much work
to be done in this area.
Five years after the adoption of the NPT Action Plan in 2010 it is clear that compliance with commitments related to nuclear disarmament lags far behind those related to non-proliferation or the so-called peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
On nuclear non-proliferation, states were mainly asked to “stay the course,” hence, there has been success in implementing the actions in the area of nonproliferation.
A positive development since the adoption of the 2010 Action Plan has been the negotiations between Iran and the E3/EU+3, which led to the agreement of a Joint Plan of Action. The parties are still engaged in negotiations to reach a comprehensive...
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WILPF Statement to the 2015 CCW meeting of experts on autonomous weapon systems
In two weeks, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) will celebrate its 100th anniversary. For 100 years, our members have sought an end to war and promoted nonviolent solutions to conflict. For 100 years, we have worked to prevent the development of violent technologies and called instead for the development of norms, principles, practices, and institutions of peace and justice. That is why we have come to this meeting on autonomous weapons here in Geneva. The world around us is embroiled in armed conflict. We are witness to the bombing and shelling of towns and cities, causing the deaths, injuries, and displacement of scores of civilians. We are witness to the rampant international arms trade and profiteering from weapons development and sale. We are witness to the use of armed drones in ways that violate international humanitarian law and international human rights law. Amidst this backdrop, we are gravely concerned at the possibility of weapons that may...
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WILPF Statement to the Conference on Disarmament on International Women's Day 2015
Thank you, Mr. President. For the last few years, my organisation, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, has been permitted to deliver a statement to the Conference on Disarmament to mark International Women’s Day. For years before that, our statement was read out to the CD by the sitting president. This is the only time of year that any voice from civil society is allowed inside the CD chamber. And this may be the last time our voice is heard here. The CD has not engaged in substantive work in 17 years. A very small minority of states have managed to block the adoption or implementation of a programme of work for all that time. And yet many of the other members refuse to allow a change in working methods, rules of procedure, enlargement of membership, or engagement of civil society. Dear colleagues, on this last point, let me explain to you what it is like being the only civil society organisation that still pays attention to the CD. Last week, for the...
Law and morality at the Vienna conference on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons
From 28 February–1 March 2015, Ray Acheson, Director of Reaching Critical Will, participated in a symposium hosted by the Helen Caldicott Foundation on "The Dynamics of Possible Nuclear Extinction". She moderated the second day of the symposium and also delivered opening remarks to report back on the Vienna conference on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons. An archived video of her presentation, and the rest of the conference, is available online. The Vienna conference on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons was the third in a series of international meetings that set out to illuminate and refine our understanding of the devastating effects of nuclear weapons. These conferences have collectively provided irrefutable evidence about the devastating consequences and risks of the use of nuclear weapons. They have also given voice to international organizations and UN agencies, which have emphatically reported that they would not be able to able to effectively respond to...
WILPF statement to the Human Rights Council on armed drones and international law
The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) is extremely concerned with the use of armed drones both for extrajudicial killings outside of armed conflict and to conduct attacks during conflict. We are concerned with the lack of due process for those on “kill lists” and other violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law; the deaths and injuries of civilians and destruction of civilian objects; the lack of transparency around the operation and targeting of armed drones; the lack of comprehensive and accurate casualty recording; and the apparent lowering of the threshold for the use of force that is enabled by armed drones. WILPF welcomes the work of the Human Rights Council on addressing the use of armed drones, including the reports by Special Rapporteurs Ben Emmerson[1] and Christoph Heyns,[2] and resolution 25/22. We echo their calls for states to comply with international law, including international humanitarian law and...
WILPF Statement to the CCW Meeting of Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems
The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) has opposed the development of technology for killing since our founding in 1915. Women from all over the world came together during the midst of a world war to protest the slaughter with what were then considered advanced technologies, such as tanks, machine guns, and chemical weapons. Now we are here in the United Nations, which did not even then exist, to speak out against the development of fully autonomous weapons. We are gravely concerned at the possibility of weapons that may operate without meaningful human control. The use of force has already become too disengaged from human involvement, with the use of armed drones. Autonomous weapons go beyond remotely-controlled drones, devolving life and death decision-making to software and sensors. Deploying autonomous weapon systems that operate without meaningful human control is not legally or ethically acceptable. The laws of war and protection of human beings...
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WILPF Statement to the Conference on Disarmament on International Women's Day 2014
Mr. President, Last year here at the CD, WILPF called on all governments to ensure that the second negotiation conference of the Arms Trade Treaty would include a legally-binding provision on preventing armed gender-based violence. We called for a provision that would not undermine existing international law and places gender-based violence on the same footing as other criteria for refusing arms transfers, such as violations of human rights and international law. The final text, adopted by the General Assembly, now signed by 116 states and on its way towards entry into force, achieved this. It is the first ever treaty that explicitly links gender-based violence with international arms trade. The treaty is one of the most significant achievements of our disarmament community in the last few years. We are now focusing our efforts at ensuring that the treaty will be efficiently implemented in order to help to prevent human suffering and armed violence. This should be the goal of all...
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WILPF position on the negative impact of arms transfers on the human rights of people living in conflict-affected areas
The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) welcomes the initiative of a resolution on the “Negative impact of Arms Transfer in the Human Rights of people living in conflict-affected areas”. We believe this is an essential issue and bringing it to the Human Rights Council highlights its obligation to address the varied aspects and factors of human rights. The impact that the global uncontrolled and irresponsible arms trade has on human rights was highlighted in the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), the text of which was adopted by the UN General Assembly earlier this year (April 2013). The ATT is the first ever international tool that prohibits the sale of arms if there is a risk that the weapons could be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian or human rights law, including acts of gender-based violence. The ATT fills a gap and builds bridges between regulating the arms trade and enhancing human security by providing a potentially...
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WILPF Statement on Syria, chemical weapons, and avoiding military intervention
The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) welcomes the decision by the British Parliament to refuse the endorsement of military action against Syria. Parliament upheld the principle that the use of chemical weapons can never be justified, but reasserted the importance of international law and the UN Charter in dictating any response by the international community. However, media reports indicate that the US government is still intent on a military strike against Syria, even without UK support. It has been WILPF’s position since the first reports of use of gas that the use of chemical weapons is a serious violation of international law, regardless of which party to the conflict perpetrated the attack. But the use of chemical weapons, however abhorrent and illegal, should not be used as a pretext for military intervention. Other options are available and must be pursued. Chemical weapons and international law There is no doubt that the use of chemical weapons...
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Statement of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots to the Human Rights Council 2013
Beatrice Fihn, manager of Reaching Critical Will, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), delivered this statement on behalf of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots to the Human Rights Council on 30 May 2013. I am speaking on behalf of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, an international coalition of non-governmental organizations that was launched last month. My organization, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom is a member. We believe that human control of over the use of violent force is essential for ensuring the protection for civilians. The campaign is calling for a comprehensive ban on fully autonomous weapons that would be able to select and attack targets without meaningful human intervention. This prohibition should be achieved through an international treaty on these fully autonomous weapons as well as through national laws and other measures. The campaign welcomes the report of the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or...