ICAN-UK December Update

In this update:
1. ICAN-UK meet with Baroness Shirley Williams
2. ICAN reaction to ICNND report
3. Diego Garcia and the African Nuclear Weapon Free Zone
4. Jayantha Dhanapala (pictured) speaks out on a Nuclear Weapons Convention
5. New Early Day Motion EDM 144- Negotiating a Nuclear Weapons Convention
6. Conference report: Britain's role in furthering nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament
7. Project Pegasus: Half a billion pound white elephant?
8. Video: Can we eliminate nuclear weapons?
9. ICAN-UK in Peace News
 

1. ICAN-UK meet with Baroness Shirley Williams
 

As well as advising Gordon Brown on nuclear proliferation, Baroness Shirley Williams is a member of the new Top-Level Group of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament and the International Commission for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND).
 
In November, ICAN-UK met with her to discuss aspects of a nuclear weapons convention and other nuclear weapons-related issues.
 
Baroness Williams emphasised the problems President Obama will face in his efforts to advance the cause of nuclear non-proliferation.
 
In particular, Obama needs to persuade the US Senate of the merits of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with Russia- which could lead to deep cuts in US and Russian nuclear arsenals- and the need for ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
 
Baroness Williams also highlighted the lack of transparency in China's nuclear arsenal as a block to trust and confidence-building and the problems associated with India being a nuclear weapons state outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
 
Other issues raised at the meeting as steps towards a nuclear-free world included:
 
 - the importance of nuclear weapons states giving no-first-use assurances (thus taking nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert).
 
- the possibility of negotiations for a Middle East Nuclear Weapons Free Zone after the NPT.
 
- the importance of 'putting a stopper in' non-NPT states' fissile material stocks then reducing stocks.
 
- the need for international agreement on what the term 'warhead' means.
 
- the next move forward on Trident depending on the outcome of the NPT and following US-Russia commitments to reductions in their nuclear warheads.
 
- the role the UK can play in becoming a disarmament laboratory. For example, training inspectors and building upon its expertise in verification technology e.g. with France.
 
 
2. ICAN reaction to ICNND report (from ICAN Australia)
 

On 15th December, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd joined Japanese counterpart Yukio Hatoyama in Tokyo to receive the major report of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND).
 
Whilst welcoming the report, ICAN believes it falls short on eliminating the nuclear threat. ICAN is concerned that the recommendations do not go far or fast enough towards getting the world to zero nuclear weapons.
 
Released during the final days of Copenhagen, the report also heavily promotes nuclear power without sufficiently addressing dangerous proliferation risks.
 
ICAN Australia Chair, Associate Professor Tilman Ruff said, “What is needed is a clear roadmap to eliminating and outlawing nuclear weapons. ICAN along with many other civil society organisations around the world advocates a Nuclear Weapons Convention (NWC), a comprehensive global treaty to get the world to zero nuclear weapons.
 
“While the Commission recognises the need for a NWC, it does not envisage one being negotiated until around 2025. This undermines the urgency of getting to zero,” says Associate Professor Ruff.
 
The Commission advocates reducing current arsenals by around 90% by 2025. This would still leave 20 times the number of nuclear weapons capable of causing unprecedented global climate change likely to persist for a decade and trigger catastrophic famine.
 
ICAN Campaign Director Dimity Hawkins said, “While we welcome the contribution of the ICNND and recognise that nuclear weapons need to come down in stages, the Commission’s target of 2000 remaining nuclear weapons by 2025 is still an enormous destructive capacity when we know what each of those could obliterate a city.”
 
“The vast majority of the international community expects to see a world free of these weapons. If it is achievable and realistic to make 90% reductions by 2025, why not go to zero?,” said Ms Hawkins.
 
“For any nuclear weapon state to maintain a nuclear arsenal in 15 years time, no matter what size fails to meet the expectations of the international community. It is simply is not far enough nor fast enough to talk of a minimisation point in 2025, with around 2,000 nuclear weapons still in the arsenals of nine states.”
 
“It is also contradictory for the Commission to promote nuclear power without solutions in place to control the dual processes of uranium enrichment and reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel to extract plutonium,” continued Associate Professor Ruff. “This will only serve to exacerbate proliferation dangers.”
 
“Achieving and sustaining a world free of nuclear weapons would be much easier and quicker in a world in which nuclear power was being phased out,” said Associate Professor Ruff.
 
“Despite these concerns, ICAN recognizes the substantial efforts of the ICNND towards building a case for disarmament and we welcome the emphasis on the role of civil society.
 
ICAN Australia urges Prime Minister Rudd to act in accelerating the ICNND’s timetable all the way to a world free of nuclear weapons,” concluded Associate Professor Ruff.
 
 
3. Diego Garcia and the African Nuclear Weapon Free Zone
 

The African Nuclear Weapon Free Zone (Treaty of Pelindaba) was signed in 1996 and entered into force on 15th July 2009, becoming the eighth Nuclear Weapons Free Zone in existence and, in theory, making the entire Southern hemisphere nuclear-weapons free.
 
However, according to a recent article by Peter H. Sand in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists:
 
"conflicting British and African interpretations of an oblique footnote about Diego Garcia threaten to put one signatory, Mauritius, in breach of the treaty".
 
This is because since 1965, having forcibly removed its population, the UK has controlled Diego Garcia- which Mauritius claims as its own- and has allowed the US to use it as a military base.
 
Sand describes how "the movement of nuclear-tipped missiles to and from the island by ships or aircraft is now considered ‘use of the facility in normal circumstances'".
 
Therefore, because neither the US nor the UK recognise Diego Garcia as being subject to the Pelindaba Treaty, Mauritius will not be able to meet its treaty obligations.
 
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Mauritian government have recently been negotiating issues of sovereignty related to Diego Garcia in order to try and resolve this issue.
 
ICAN-UK wrote to the FCO asking them to explain their position on Diego Garcia- which they refer to as the British Indian Ocean Territories (BIOT), and the current status of negotiations with Mauritius.
 
According to Zoe Townsley, Assistant Administrator of the BIOT at the FCO:
 
“The Government of the UK has no doubt as to its sovereignty over the British Indian Ocean Territory and does not accept the inclusion of the Territory within the African nuclear-weapon-free zone without its consent. The Government of the UK does not accept any legal obligations in respect of that Territory by its adherence to Protocols I and II.
 
As I mentioned above, the UK has no doubt about its sovereignty over the BIOT which was ceded to Britain in 1814 and has been a British dependency ever since. As we have reiterated on many occasions, we have undertaken to cede the Territory to Mauritius when it is no longer required for defence purposes.
 
There have been two meetings between UK and Mauritian officials to discuss issues relating to the Territory in January and July 2009.”
 
ICAN-UK calls upon the UK government to consent to allow Diego Garcia to be included within the African Nuclear Weapons Free Zone.
 
 
4. Jayantha Dhanapala speaks out on a Nuclear Weapons Convention

 
On 1st December, Jayantha Dhanapala, President of Pugwash (pictured above) addressed the Royal Society on the subject of “The Urgency of Nuclear Disarmament in a world of pressing problems”.
 
Dhanapala has been a steadfast supporter of a Nuclear Weapons Convention (NWC) over recent years and in his address described a NWC as the 'simplest and most direct route' towards realising the vision of a world free from nuclear arms.
 
Dhanapala outlined clear measures that governments and leaders can take- in countries such as the UK- to make this vision a reality. For example, he recommended that delegations of influential Europeans should try to persuade US Senators to ratify the new START and the CTBT.
 
Moreover, Dhanapala emphasised that the “UK Government and the Governments of other nuclear weapon states” must “take more practical steps” in order to convince non-nuclear weapons states that they are serious about disarmament.
 
Dhanapala concluded his speech by outlining how a Nuclear Weapons Convention would thus “contribute towards easing global tensions and resolving the burning issues of our times - nuclear weapons, climate change, terrorism, poverty, international finance and human rights”.
 
For the full text of Jayantha Dhanapala's speech, click here.
 
 
5. New Early Day Motion EDM 144- Negotiating a Nuclear Weapons Convention
 

On 19th November, Jeremy Corbyn MP tabled EDM 144 calling upon the Government to support negotiations towards a Nuclear Weapons Convention (NWC) at next year's Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference- see the full text below.
 
At the time of writing, over 100 MPs have signed the EDM. ICAN-UK is calling on the Government to show real leadership in the world by scrapping Trident and entering multilateral negotiations towards the verifiable global abolition of nuclear weapons.
 
We therefore need people to write to their MPs and lobby them to support a NWC by signing EDM 144. See ICAN Act on the ICAN-UK website for more campaigning information.
 
Text of EDM 144:
 
“That this House notes the forthcoming nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference in May 2010 and the opportunities it presents for progress on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation;
 
endorses the unanimous opinion of the International Court of Justice that there exists an obligation to pursue in good faith, and bring to a conclusion, negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament in all its aspects under strict and effective international control;
 
further notes growing international support for negotiation of a Nuclear Weapons Convention to outlaw all nuclear weapons; and calls on the Government to give full support to negotiating a Nuclear Weapons Convention and to make this position absolutely clear at the NPT Review Conference”.
 
 
6. Britain's role in furthering nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament
 

In December, ICAN-UK participated in the conference 'Towards Zero: Britain's role in furthering nuclear non-proliferation and multilateral approaches to disarmament,' jointly organised by RUSI, UNA-UK and BASIC.
 
Professor Michael Clarke kicked off proceedings by describing how times have changed since the Cold War, so that support for nuclear disarmament, once seen by the establishment as the province of radicals, is now voiced by many in elite circles.
 
Clarke also pointed to how the vision of a nuclear free world is now realpolitik for the US given its overwhelming conventional military power. If nuclear weapons proliferate widely over the next decade, for example to weaker powers- including non-state actors- the US military's freedom of action will be curtailed and they and other 'great powers' could be 'held to ransom'.
 
Some of the steps which the UK could take to further non-proliferation and disarmament were identified in the four sessions as follows:
 
 
- The need for the US Senate to ratify the new START and CTBT and the influential role UK political and military leaders could play in lobbying Senators to accomplish this goal.
 
- The importance of a successful 2010 NPT Review Conference that builds trust and confidence between states. Mariot Leslie of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office argued for a strengthened IAEA and improved safeguards.
 
- The need for the UK to work with the French government on matters such as downgrading the role of nuclear weapons in their military postures and improving verification technology.
 
- Convening experts e.g. top nuclear officials from nuclear weapons states to discuss transparency, verification and emergency responses to nuclear crises.
 
- Baroness Williams described a decision to renew Trident as a 'disaster'. However, Mike Gapes MP argued that unilateral disarmament would not lead to other states disarming or states desirous of nuclear weapons giving up their ambitions.
 
 
7. Project Pegasus: Half a billion pound white elephant?
 
 
According to the Nuclear Information Service (NIS), plans for a new purpose-built enriched uranium handling facility at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) Aldermaston are “a half a billion pound white elephant”.
 
The NIS website describes the new facility as “unnecessary and unaffordable and a potential obstacle to progress at forthcoming arms control talks”.
 
For the NIS, this is because the construction of the new facility sends out a clear signal that the UK “intends to develop a new generation of nuclear warheads at Aldermaston, running the risk of wrecking President Obama's global initiative to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and reduce the number of nuclear weapons worldwide”.
 
The new facility is slated to come into service in 2016 at a cost of around half a billion pounds to design and build. The NIS highlights how this expenditure comes at a time when deep cuts are planned in public services and the fact that the project will not generate any new jobs at AWE Aldermaston.
 
 You can download a copy of NIS's full briefing about Aldermaston's new enriched uranium facility, and read previously unreleased classified documents about the investment decisions underpinning the project which have been released by the Ministry of Defence to NIS under the Freedom of Information Act here.
 
 
8. Can we eliminate nuclear weapons?
 
 
On 20th November, the London School of Economics and Political Science hosted a discussion between Ambassador Richard Burt, Kate Hudson (Chair of CND), Professor Mary Kaldor, and HM Queen Noor entitled 'Can we eliminate nuclear weapons?'.
 
In a wide ranging discussion, the panel spoke about the Global Zero campaign, a Nuclear Weapons Convention, the key steps towards achieving zero nuclear weapons, the prospects of a Middle East Nuclear Weapons Free Zone and the problems associated with the spread of civil nuclear power. You can listen to/watch the event online here.
 
 
9. ICAN-UK in Peace News
 
 
ICAN-UK has an article in the latest issue of Peace News, outlining the case for a Nuclear Weapons Convention and what actions people can take to help achieve it. You can read more on the Peace News website.