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LCNP and the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms, in association with the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and International Network of Engineers and Scientists Against Proliferation, released a Model Nuclear Weapons Convention (MNWC) drafted by an international consortium of lawyers, scientists, disarmament experts, physicians and activists.

The Model NWC (April, 1997) prohibits the use, threat of use, possession, development, testing, deployment and transfer of nuclear weapons and provides a phased program for their elimination under effective international control. It provides for the verified elimination of nuclear weapons in much the same way comparable treaties have banned landmines and chemical and weapons. (There is also a ban on biological weapons, but there are as yet no verification provisions.)

The MNWC was drafted to demonstrate the feasibility of the elimination of nuclear weapons and thus stimulate negotiations to that end. Costa Rica submitted the MNWC to the United Nations later that year; it was circulated as UN Doc A/C.1/52/7.

In 2007, the same groups updated the MNWC and published it as part of an explanatory commentary in the book, Securing Our Survival. You can read the book online or order the book directly. Links to the MNWC alone are provided below.

In early December 2007, the governments of Costa Rica and Malaysia submitted an updated MNWC to the United Nations:

Nuclear Weapons Convention - ARABIC
Nuclear Weapons Convention - CHINESE
Nuclear Weapons Convention - ENGLISH
Nuclear Weapons Convention - FRENCH
Nuclear Weapons Convention - GERMAN
Nuclear Weapons Convention - JAPANESE
Nuclear Weapons Convention - RUSSIAN
Nuclear Weapons Convention - SPANISH

The updated version considersd key developments since 1997 relevant to the development and implementation of mechanisms for nuclear abolition. These include the overt acquisition of nuclear weapons by new countries (India, Pakistan and North Korea), the demonstrated black-market and non-state actor access to nuclear materials, the establishment of relevant criminal controls through UN Security Council resolution 1540, technological developments relevant to verification, and the establishment of new Nuclear Weapon Free Zones (Mongolia and Central Asia).

The consequent UN General Assembly resolution calling for a NWC:
Follow-up on the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the Legality of the Threat or Use of nuclear Weapons

Adopted on December 5, 2007, 127 countries voted in favor (with 27 abstentions & 27 against): vote record. It has been adopted annually since 1997.

Costa Rica also submitted to the 2007 NPT PrepCom: Working paper submitted by Costa Rica, explaining elements of the NWC.

In addition, in 2007 the Nuclear Weapons Convention and the book Securing Our Survival received specific high-level and cross-party support from around the world including from conservative former Prime Ministers Malcolm Fraser (Australia) and Jim Bolger (New Zealand); Nobel Peace Laureates including Mairead Macguire; United Nations officials including Sergio Duarte, UN High Representative on Disarmament; military leaders including Romeo Dallaire, former Commander of UN Forces in Rwanda; parliamentarians, and civil society leaders including Mayor Akiba of Hiroshima.

On July 1, 2008, a cross-party group of members of the European Parliament launched a Parliamentary declaration in support of the Nuclear Weapons Convention. Signatories include Michel Rocard (former Prime Minister of France) and Jena Luc Dehaene (former Prime Minister of Belgium), both now members of the European Parliament.

Report of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament.

 

Nuclear Abolition Forum: Dialogue on the Process to Achieve and Sustain a Nuclear Weapons Free World, New York, 21 October 2011.Inaugural Issue of Magazine:

International Humanitarian Law and Nuclear Weapons articles by John Burroughs, Peter Weiss, Nicholas Grief, Randy Rydell, et al.

The Challenge of Nuclear Abolition, Remarks of Peter Weiss, May 2, 2012, Vienna

Preparatory process for a Nuclear Weapons Convention: practical, useful, timely?, Alyn Ware, January 2010

The Need for a Coherent Nuclear Non-Proliferation/Disarmament Regime, John Burroughs, Remarks to UN Secretary-General's Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters, February 26, 2010

Petition to President Obama for Abolition of Nuclear Weapons
Your signature will be among millions collected on this and similar international petitions and presented at the 2010 NPT Review Conference at the UN in New York.

Letter from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to Judge Weeramantry, President of International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (LCNP's international body), February 9, 2009
Letter from Judge Weeramantry to the Secretary-General, November 25, 2008
UN Secretary-General address, October 24, 2008, to East-West Institute conference, "The United Nations and Security in a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World"

The Challenges of Security in a World without Nuclear Weapons, John Burroughs, January 16, 2009

 

 


     

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