Update 2

November 2001

Contents:

1. Introduction: Welcome

2. Nuclear weapons and campaign against terrorism

3. United Nations General Assembly

4. Japanese Parliament and UN resolutions

5. New Zealand Select Committee and Nuclear Free Zone Extension Bill

6. PNND development

7. Resources

1. INTRODUCTION

Welcome to new members to the Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament. This is my second report. The first report on September 22 included the following items:

1. United Nations Under-Secretary General's Statement on Terrorism and Nuclear Disarmament

2. Pentagon recommends use of nuclear weapons (Kyodo News)

3. Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Meeting rescheduled

4. United Nations Disarmament Education Study

Let me know if you missed out on this and would like a copy emailed to you.

We plan to send out an email report every two months. It will contain:

· Reports on parliamentary actions and initiatives

· Updates on key international disarmament meetings

· New resources and key contacts

· Other information which you think would be useful to share with parliamentary colleagues, so please send us your suggestions.

We hope to keep the reports short and put more detailed information on the website.

Yours sincerely,

Alyn Ware

PNND Coordinator

In the previous report we cited media reports which said that the Pentagon was recommending that the US consider using nuclear weapons in the war against terrorism, and in particular in the campaign to destroy underground hideouts of Al Qaida. The Pentagon was not alone in suggesting the possible use of nuclear weapons. Some US congressional members made similar suggestions.

A number of NGOs and parliamentarians voiced opposition to this suggestion. Matt Robson, New Zealand’s Minister of Disarmament in a public address on October 5 reaffirmed New Zealand’s participation in the global campaign against terrorism but emphasised that:

With regard to the offer of military support, the Government must ensure that any involvement is consistent with New Zealand law. Specifically, that means that we would not participate in any military action that utilised nuclear weapons.

Our law prohibits New Zealanders from active involvement in nuclear warfare, and that is a bottom line position. (full statement http://archive.pnnd.org/matt_robson.htm)

Peter Vanhoutte, a member of the Belgian parliament, visited NATO Headquarters in Belgium and received an assurance that the US would not use nuclear weapons.

In an interview with Ausaf Editor Hamid Mir on November 10, Osama Bin Laden claimed to have nuclear and chemical weapons and would use them if the United States attacked his supporters first with such weapons. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said on NBC’s Meet the Press that it was “unlikely” he had acquired nuclear arms, and Condoleezza Rice, President Bush’s national security adviser, said on ABC’s This Week there was “no credible evidence” of this. On November 15, partly burnt documents found in a house abandoned by al Qaida gave detailed designs for missiles, bombs and nuclear weapons. The Times reported that President Bush had information indicating that Osama bin Laden had access to nuclear material. However, no evidence of this has been released, nor any evidence that al Qaida has developed the technology for building nuclear weapons.

There are 12 international and 7 regional conventions dealing with terrorism. (see http://untreaty.un.org/English/Terrorism.asp ). The United Nations General Assembly (Legal Committee) has been considering two further draft conventions: a comprehensive convention on terrorism and a convention on the suppression of nuclear terrorism. The draft convention on nuclear terrorism can be found at http://www.un.org/law/terrorism/english/c653_l4e.pdf

A sticking point in the negotiations on the nuclear terrorism convention is the issue of the threat or use of nuclear weapons by States. Nuclear Weapon States do not want the convention to apply to their nuclear policies and practices. Non-nuclear States do not want the non-application of the convention to NWS to imply that their policies are legitimate.

Waiting for Terror: How Realistic is the Biological, Chemical and Nuclear Threat?

Crude Nuclear Weapons: Proliferation and the Terrorist Threat, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Boston 1997. http://www.ippnw.org/IPPNWBooks.html

The First Committee (Disarmament and Security) of the United Nations General Assembly met from October 8 until November 6 and considered 51 draft resolutions.

· The US opposed the CTBT resolution and the Japanese resolution calling for steps towards eventual nuclear disarmament.

· A resolution calling for a UN Study on missile proliferation received a very large number of abstentions (57) indicating considerable uncertainty on how to proceed on this issue.

· The New Agenda Group did not submit a resolution this year, but kept the floor open for a resolution next year, following the NPT Review Conference Preparatory Meeting.

· A resolution on terrorism was adopted by consensus. The resolution emphasised the need for progress in disarmament and non-proliferation to help maintain international peace and security and contribute to global efforts against terrorism.

On 9 November 2001, Mr. Tetsuo Kaneko, SDP member of the House of Representatives from Hiroshima initiated a debate in the Japanese parliament with Mr. Seiken Sugiura, Senior Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs at the House of the Representatives Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs with respect to the Japanese resolution at the United Nations General Assembly calling for nuclear disarmament.

Mr. Kaneko claimed that changes in the text of the resolution represented a weakening by Japan in its stand against nuclear weapons. He noted that language calling for entry into force of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty by 2003 was dropped. In addition, language affirming the unequivocal commitment made by states for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons was weakened to merely calling for such a commitment to be made in the future. He also criticised the government for not collaborating with the New Agenda group of countries on nuclear disarmament at the United Nations.

Mr. Seiken Sugiura replied that Japan made the changes to reflect current realities regarding the CTBT and that Japan did attempt to engage with the New Agenda countries during the UN General Assembly.

The New Zealand Parliamentary Select Committee on Foreign Affairs reported back to the New Zealand House of Representatives on a bill by the Green Party to extend New Zealand’s anti-nuclear legislation to include a ban on the transit of nuclear waste shipments and nuclear weapons through New Zealand’s 200 mile exclusive economic zone. Earlier this year the Inter-Parliamentary Union had adopted a resolution calling on States to enact such prohibitions.

The Select Committee reported that New Zealand had responsibilities under the Law of the Sea to allow freedom of navigation through the EEZ and so could not enact such a ban. Judge Weeramantry, former Vice-President of the International Court of Justice, argued before the committee, that transit of nuclear weapons and materials might be protected under the Law of the Sea, but that deployment of nuclear weapons was inconsistent with international law as affirmed in the 1996 International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion, and could be proscribed.

The House has not yet concluded consideration of the Bill but is likely to follow the recommendation of the Select Committee.

· Basic information about the PNND in brochure form is now available in the following languages:

Arabic, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish.

· Webpages in many of these languages have been developed, accessible through archive.pnnd.org

· Letters have been sent to the Clerks and Speakers/Presidents of 185 parliaments informing them of the network and requesting that they inform their members about it.

· Individual invitations to members of parliamentary committees on foreign affairs and defence in a number of parliaments has begun.

· In Japan a core group of parliamentarians from all political parties has formed to promote and manage a Japanese branch of the network.

· In New Zealand the network was launched with a parliamentary screening of “Thirteen Days”, a Hollywood movie depicting the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The following resources are available from the PNND Office. Please contact me if you would like a copy of any of them.

Report from the Middle Powers Initiative Strategy Consultation on Implementing the Non-Proliferation Treaty Commitments. No cost.

An international team of scientists, lawyers, and disarmament specialists drafted and released a Model Nuclear Weapons Convention (NWC) in April 1997. This model was submitted by Costa Rica to the United Nations as a discussion draft in November 1997. The responses and developments that have followed since then have led to the collaborative publication of a revised version of the Model NWC, together with comments and discussion on critical political, legal, and technical questions essential to complete nuclear disarmament. Published by IPPNW; 1999 140pp U.S. $10.00

Nuclear Weapons Convention Monitor

a series of periodic bulletins exploring progress on and challenges to a Nuclear Weapons Convention (NWC) -- a treaty to prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons under a verifiable international regime. The opinions and analysis presented address political, legal, and technical questions critical to the future course of nuclear disarmament. US $5 per issue

It has now become clear that the nuclear weapon states, led by the US, UK and France, cite nuclear deterrence doctrine as the final, indispensable justification for maintaining their nuclear arsenals. Nuclear deterrence must therefore be debunked and alternatives offered if there is to be any serious prospect of eliminating nuclear weapons. NZ $20 (+ $2 p&p, $7 overseas)

This booklet describes the role New Zealanders played in challenging the legality of the testing, use and threat of nuclear weapons, at the World Court in The Hague. In 1996 the Court issued an Advisory Opinion confirming the general illegality of the threat or use of these weapons, and called on all governments to bring to a conclusion negotiations leading to complete nuclear disarmament under strict and effective international control. NZ $10 (+ $2 p&p, $5 overseas)