ICNND urges nuclear disarmament progress

icnndreport1The International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament released its report “Eliminating Nuclear Threats: A Practical Agenda for Global Policymakers” today. Declaring that “maintaining the status quo is not an option,” the commissioners argue that the opportunity exists “to halt, and reverse, the nuclear weapons tide once and for all.”

International NGOs working on nuclear disarmament issues welcomed the report’s “many useful and practical recommendations.” But they also criticized the pace of the action plan for nuclear disarmament laid out in the report, saying it is far too slow: “Rather than adding to the global momentum for nuclear abolition, there is a danger that it could in fact act as a brake.”

The NGOs were especially critical of the plan’s failure to outline a path all the way to zero nuclear weapons. Although the commission does suggest that a comprehensive Nuclear Weapons Convention will be necessary in order to achieve a world without nuclear weapons, it recommends only that “work should commence now on further refining and developing the concepts in the model Nuclear Weapons Convention now in circulation”.

The 230-page report was produced by a panel of 15 independent commissioners, mostly former government ministers and high-ranking officials from around the world, sponsored by the governments of Australia and Japan. The co-chairs of the commission were former Australian foreign minister Gareth Evans and former Japanese foreign minister Yoriko Kawaguchi.

Tags: Afghanistan, International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, Nuclear disarmament