At this crucial moment on the wake of the Review Conference on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT, to be held on May 3-28, 2010) and the Summit on Nuclear Security (to be held on April 12-13, 2010), we, the Committee of Seven for World Peace Appeal, recall and support the key note address by Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, delivered at a symposium held in the United Nations Headquarters on October 24, 2008 on “The United Nations and security in a nuclear-weapon-free world”.

The Secretary-General made there a five-point proposal, many of which, including following points, still remain unsolved at the present time.

First, he urges all NPT parties, in particular the nuclear-weapon states, to fulfill their obligation under the treaty to undertake negotiations on effective measures leading to nuclear disarmament. …They should consider negotiating a nuclear weapons convention, as has long been proposed at the United Nations.

His second proposal includes that the Security Council’s permanent members, the nuclear-weapon states, should unambiguously assure non-nuclear-weapon states that they will not be the subject of the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons. Non-NPT states should freeze their own nuclear-weapon capabilities and make their own disarmament commitments.

His third initiative relates to the ‘rule of law’: the CTBT, a fissile material treaty, and nuclear-weapon-free zone treaties. He urges all NPT parties to conclude their safeguards agreements with the IAEA, and to voluntarily adopt the strengthened safeguards under the Additional Protocol.

His fourth proposal concerns accountability and greater transparency with expanded amount of information.

Fifth and finally, he points out the fact that a number of complementary measures are needed, including the elimination of other types of weapons of mass destruction (WMD; as well as the limits on the production and trade in conventional arms.

We agree with all these recommendations. In particular we call upon all states, especially nuclear-weapon states to start quickly the negotiation on the nuclear weapons convention. This is because of two reasons:

First, we are convinced that all the people of the world appreciate the fact that the General Assembly of the United Nations has called upon “all states immediately to fulfill that obligation by commencing multilateral negotiations leading to an early conclusion of a nuclear weapons convention prohibiting the development, production, testing, deployment, stockpiling, transfer, threat or use of nuclear weapons and providing for their elimination” in the Resolution “Follow-up to the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons” adopted annually from 1996 (December 10) to 2009 (December 2). The Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission chaired by Hans Blix also recommended that all states possessing nuclear weapons should commence planning for security without nuclear weapons and they should start preparing for the outlawing of nuclear weapons, as stated in their report “Weapons of Terror: Freeing the World of Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Arms” submitted to the United Nations in June 2006.

The other reason is that we believe it is indispensable to adopt unambiguous legal regulations on the illegality of nuclear weapons in addition to the present NPT regime. The US President Barack Obama has expressed repeatedly the necessity to strengthen the NPT. We agree on the importance of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. However the NPT regime is not enough to eliminate all nuclear weapons from the Earth. Because it is extremely difficult, as shows past history, to bring the non-NPT states, especially India, Pakistan and Israel, into the NPT regime. We are convinced that, overcoming the NPT, all member states of the UN should commence sincere negotiation based on the Model Nuclear Weapons Convention promoted by Costa Rica and Malaysia which was mentioned by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in his above-mentioned address.

It is important to notice that India, Pakistan, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Iran voted favorably on the Resolution “Follow-up to the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons” at the General Assembly of the UN all the way since 1996. As we mentioned previously “commencing multilateral negotiations leading to an early conclusion of a nuclear weapons convention” is included in this Resolution. This means that the nuclear weapons convention is most effective and urgent way to put nuclear weapons under the rule of law covering both NPT states and non-NPT states and to prevent the danger that nuclear weapons become available to non-state organizations.

We urge all member states of the UN to start immediately negotiating for a nuclear weapons convention leading to its earliest conclusion,.

Contact:
Michiji Konuma, Secretary General,
Committee of Seven for World Peace Appeal
e-mail: mkonuma254@m4.dion.ne.jp
Fax: +81-(0)45-891-8386
URL: http://worldpeace7.jp

PDF Appeal→102e.pdf