ican learn

 

 
Click here to download ICAN-UK's new pamphlet 'The Case for Nuclear Abolition'. It's full of information about nuclear weapons, their history, the struggle to ban them and ideas on how we can build a nuclear-free future.
 
To find out how a global abolition treaty would work, who's in favour of it and how you can get involved in campaigning for disarmament click here to download ICAN-UK's '20 Questions on a Nuclear Weapons Convention'.
 

NB- Make sure you have the latest version of Adobe in order to download these materials.
 
 

  • The problem is 23,000 nuclear weapons

 
There are approximately 23,000 nuclear weapons in existence. According to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, just 50 of today’s nuclear weapons could kill 200 million people.
 
Nuclear weapons are illegal, immoral and genocidal; they can destroy our cities, health, global climate, water catchments and our food chain, and they routinely deplete funds and attention from achieving human security. They are the ultimate weapons of terror.
 
Today's real security threats are climate change, environmental degradation, poverty, hunger, terrorism and crime. Nuclear weapons budgets and policies make most of these problems much worse because they divert enormous financial and technical resources from where they are really needed. In addition, the development of nuclear weapons directly adds to environmental degradation, and breeds mistrust rather than cooperation between nations.
 

  • The solution is a Nuclear Weapons Convention

 
A Nuclear Weapons Convention (NWC) is a proposed treaty to ban nuclear weapons and ensure their elimination. Countries are legally required to negotiate such a treaty, and experts have already produced a draft text. They argue that a NWC is more likely to succeed than a series of fragmented and inconsistent approaches to nuclear disarmament.
 
In 2007 ICAN coordinated the redrafting of the model NWC and launched Securing Our Survival (SOS): The Case for a Nuclear Weapons Convention. 
 
 

  • The UK's role

 
The government says that it supports multilateral nuclear disarmament and has acknowledged that a Nuclear Weapons Convention may be required at some time in the future. In May 2010, the UK joined the 189 member states of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), calling ‘on all nuclear-weapon States to undertake concrete disarmament efforts’ and affirming that ‘all States establish the necessary framework to achieve and maintain a world without nuclear weapons.’
 
The UK Government also plans to renew its Trident nuclear arsenal, as supported by a House of Commons vote in 2007. Until this position is overturned, it is unlikely that the UK could take a lead on nuclear disarmament
 
SUPPORT DISARMAMENT AND DIPLOMACY, SCRAP TRIDENT
 
For a decade there has been all-party support for the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) at Aldermaston to work on verifying disarmament and nuclear warhead dismantlement. Instead, Aldermaston is now being refurbished to design and build more modern nuclear weapons costing billions of pounds. This is because the government is pushing forward with its nuclear rearmament plans, including four new submarines to carry Trident missiles into the 2050s.
 
START NEGOTIATIONS IN GOOD FAITH NOW
 
ICAN-UK calls on the government to honour and implement Britain’s existing commitments under the NPT and international law. The UK must stop hiding behind the false claims that nuclear weapons provide security and deterrence. The UK’s nuclear weapons only increase insecurity and drive proliferation. We therefore demand that Trident be scrapped and call on the government to join progressive non-nuclear nations in paving the way for a Nuclear Weapons Convention by 2020.

 

  • FAQs

 

  • Who has nuclear weapons?

 
There are five officially declared nuclear weapon states in the world: the USA, Russia, UK, France and China. These states are signatories to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Three more states, Israel, India and Pakistan, have developed nuclear weapons outside the treaty framework.
 
North Korea (DPRK) claims to have a nuclear weapons capability. It withdrew from the NPT in 2003 and has since tested two nuclear devices, one in 2006 and one in 2009. Iran has a nuclear power programme – a number of states allege this hides a nuclear weapons programme.
 
Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy and Turkey, as part of their membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) have several hundred US nuclear weapons based on their soil.
 
For more information on nuclear weapons visit the CND website.
 
World Nuclear Forces 2009 (Totals):
 
Russia – 13,000
USA – 9,400
France – 300
China – 240
UK – 185
Israel – 80
India – 60
Pakistan – 60
North Korea – <10
  
Source:
 
Federation of American Scientists
 

  • Why should the UK scrap its nuclear weapons?

 
Nuclear weapons fuel proliferation, do not keep the peace, are hugely expensive, undemocratic, acutely dangerous, unusable, indiscriminate and illegal.
 
It is a myth that Trident provides a deterrent against threats to the UK. General Sir Hugh Beach has thus argued that “Britain cannot claim to have derived any direct security benefit from the possession of nuclear weapons”. For example, “British nuclear weapons did not deter Argentina from attempting to annex the Falkland Islands in 1982, nor did they help Britain to recover them”.
 

  • Are the UK's nuclear weapons illegal?

 
By continuing to possess nuclear weapons, Britain is failing to comply with its obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) which it signed in 1968. Under the NPT Britain has committed itself to disarm, with Article VI stating that signatories will pursue: “negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament”.
 
In 1996 the International Court of Justice ruled that any threat or use of nuclear weapons would generally be contrary to the principles and rules of international humanitarian law and directed the powers to implement their Article VI commitments by starting, and bringing to a conclusion, negotiations on the elimination of nuclear weapons.
 
Furthermore, in 2006, Greenpeace obtained an “independent, authoritative legal opinion” from a top international lawyer which indicated that “replacing or renewing Britain's Trident nuclear weapons system is inconsistent with international law”.
 

  • What should the UK Government do to advance global nuclear disarmament?

 
The UK could set the pace within international treaty meetings by agreeing not to replace Trident, then removing its Trident submarines from patrol and storing the warheads safely ashore. This would represent a truly responsible use of Trident and inspire confidence in the non-proliferation process, making a NWC possible.
 

  • What is the UK Government's position on a Nuclear Weapons Convention?

 
Despite the government's support for the goal of a nuclear weapons-free world, the UK is currently resisting calls for it to back a Nuclear Weapons Convention.
 
In response to a written question from Elfyn Llwyd (PC), Foreign Office Minister Ivan Lewis clarified the UK's stance as follows: "At the moment we believe it would be premature to press for a Nuclear Weapons Convention, which [would] be unlikely to make any headway and would distract attention from efforts to bolster the NPT. We do nonetheless believe there may be a role for a Nuclear Weapons Convention in the future when the time comes to establish a final ban".
 
However, eminent figures in the disarmament community such as Jayantha Dhanapala (President of Pugwash) have repudiated the Foreign Office's arguments that a Nuclear Weapons Convention (NWC) would undermine the NPT, instead describing a NWC as "the simplest and most direct route" to a nuclear weapons free world.
 
 

  • What would a Nuclear Weapons Convention look like?

 
The Model NWC contains detailed provisions for national implementation and verification; establishes an international agency responsible for enforcement and dispute settlement; and indicates procedures for reporting and addressing violations. Comparison is made with the existing treaties banning entire categories of weapons such as the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Mine Ban Treaty.
 

  • Why call for a Nuclear Weapons Convention now?

 
In December 2006 at the UN General Assembly, 125 governments- including nuclear armed China, India and Pakistan- called upon states to immediately fulfil their nuclear disarmament obligations 'by commencing multilateral negotiations leading to an early conclusion on a NWC prohibiting the development, production, testing, deployment, stockpiling, transfer, threat or use of nuclear weapons and providing for their elimination'.

Also, in April 2009, the European Parliament approved- with a majority of 177 votes to 130- an amendment introducing the "Model Nuclear Weapons Convention" and the "Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol" as concrete tools to achieve a nuclear weapons free world by 2020.
 
Not only do a majority of states want a NWC; opinion polls demonstrate that a majority of citizens- including those of Nuclear Weapon States (NWS)- also overwhelmingly want a nuclear-weapons free world. Recent polls have shown that the British public supports a global treaty banning nuclear weapons:
  
64% of those polled in the UK by YouGov in January 2007 agreed that "International Conventions are in force banning chemical and biological weapons. The UK government should support a similar convention to ban nuclear weapons."
 
84.5% of those polled in the UK by Angus Reid Global Monitor in October 2007 supported eliminating all nuclear weapons in the world through an enforceable agreement.
 
81% of those polled in the UK by WorldPublicOpinion.org in December 2008 favoured a plan for totally eliminating nuclear weapons according to a timeline.
 
54% of those polled in the UK by ICM in July 2009 want Britain to scrap nuclear weapons altogether rather than replace Trident.
 

  • How would a Nuclear Weapons Convention relate to other international agreements?

 
The Model NWC does not undermine existing nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament regimes, and verification and compliance arrangements. It would complement, enhance and build on the Non-Proliferation Treaty, International Atomic Energy Agency Safeguards, Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organisation International Monitoring System and bilateral agreements between Russia and the United States. In some cases the NWC may add to the functions and activities of such regimes and arrangements. In other cases, the NWC would establish additional complementary arrangements.
 
 

  • Useful websites:

 

  • UK

 
Acronym www.acronym.org.uk
  
Action for UN Renewal: www.action-for-un-renewal.org.uk
  
Aldermaston Women's Peace Campaign: www.aldermaston.net
 
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament: www.cnd.org
 
Faslane Peace Camp: www.faslanepeacecamp.org.uk
 
Fellowship of Reconciliation UK  www.for.org.uk
 
Labour CND www.labourcnd.org.uk
 
Nuclear Information Service nuclearinfo.org
 
Oxford Research Group: www.oxfordresearchgroup.org.uk
 
Polden-Puckham Charitable Foundation www.polden-puckham.org.uk
 
Pugwash UK www.pugwash.org/uk
 
Quakers UK www.quaker.org.uk
 
Trident Ploughshares www.tridentploughshares.org
 
United Nations Association UK www.una-uk.org
 
WMD Awareness www.wmdawareness.org.uk
 

  • International

 
British American Security Information Council www.basicint.org
  
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists www.thebulletin.org
 
Disarmament Hub www.disarmamenthub.org
 
Global Zero www.globalzero.org
 
International Association of Lawyers against Nuclear Arms www.ialana.net
 
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War www.ippnw.org
 
Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament www.pnnd.org
 
Reaching Critical Will www.reachingcriticalwill.org
 
 

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