Building Momentum: Global Actions for Nuclear Disarmament

2. And now the good news: momentum toward abolition is building!

3. What actions are being taken to build momentum for nuclear disarmament?

5. Building Momentum: Public Opinion 93% of Canadians believe our government should participate in negotiations for nuclear abolition. (Feb. 1998) Global Zero recently released a poll of 21 countries that found: • global public opinion overwhelmingly favors an international agreement for eliminating all nuclear weapons according to a timetable -- • 76 percent of respondents across all countries polled favor such an agreement.

6. Building Momentum through government action Warhead Reductions - from 69,478 nuclear warheads in 1986 to 23,000 nuclear warheads now.

8. Global Partnership Program • Started at the G8 meeting in Kananaskis. • Raised US $20 billion over 10 years • Key priorities: • the destruction of Russia’s chemical • weapons stockpile • the dismantling of Russian nuclear • submarines • in installations for nuclear and • radiological materials, securing the sites • to stop terrorist access • employing former weapons scientists

9. Building Momentum: Government Action Which states are calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons? • The approximately 125 countries voting in favour of the Nuclear Weapons Convention at the United Nations General Assembly • The New Agenda Coalition (Brazil, Egypt, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, and Sweden) are coordinating on next steps. • So too are the Seven Nation Initiative (Australia, Chile, Indonesia, Norway, Romania, South Africa and the United Kingdom)

10. Building Momentum: Government Action The International Fora for Disarmament • First Committee of the UN - resolutions handled in the fall • Conference on Disarmament - no negotiations on disarmament treaties since 1996. • NPT Conferences - every 5 years.

11. International Leaders are calling for nuclear elimination • The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon • Joint statement of U.S. President Obama and Russian President Medvedev • Joint statement of Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier • Joint statement of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Australia and Japan • Dr. El Baradei, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

12. Building Momentum: Parliamentarians! • The European Parliament has approved the Nuclear Weapons Convention as a concrete tool to achieve a nuclear weapons-free world by 2020. • 73 members of the European Parliament have signed a Parliamentary Declaration in support of the Nuclear Weapons Convention.

13. Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (PNND) Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament was created to enable discussion of nuclear disarmament issues. PNND has over 700 members from 75 countries. 63 Canadian parliamentarians have joined.

14. Former Statesmen (and some former military) call for abolition! • United States officials: Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, Sam Nunn and William Perry • Russian stateman: Mikhail Mikhail Gorbachev • Norwegian statesmen: former Prime Ministers Odvar Nordli, Kåre Willoch, Gro Harlem Brundtland and Kjell Magne Bondevik and former Foreign Minister Thorvald Stoltenberg, • German statesmen: former Federal Minister Egon Bahr, former Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, former Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher and former Federal President Richard von Weizsaecker

15. British statesmen: Sir Malcolm Rifkind, Lord Douglas Hurd, Lord David Owen, and Lord George Robertson • Australian statesmen: former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, former Defence Force chief General Peter Gration and former chief of the army Lieutenant-General John Sanderson • Polish statesmen: former Polish Presidents Aleksander Kwasniewski and Lech Walesa and former Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki • Italian statesmen: former Prime Minister Massimo D’Alema, President of Italian Chamber of Deputies Gianfranco Fini,  former Minister for European Affairs Giorgio La Malfa and former Defence Minister Arturo Parisi

16. French high-level statemen: Former prime ministers Michel Rocard (Socialist) and Alain Juppé (the presidential party UMP), former Defense Minister Alain Richard and former General Air-Corps Norlain Bernard (head of the military cabinet of President Jacques Chirac), • Belgian statesmen: Willy Claes, former minister of Foreign Affairs, former NATO secretary general;  Jean-Luc Dehaene, former prime minister of Belgium, member of the European Parliament; Louis Michel, former minister of Foreign Affairs, former member of EU Commission, member of the European Parliament; and, Guy Verhofstadt, former prime minister of Belgium, chairman liberal fraction European Parliament,

17. Building Momentum: Mayors speak out! 3680 Mayors in 135 countries now have joined Mayors for Peace by endorsing the call for nuclear weapons-free world by 2020. In Canada, 81 Mayors have joined.

18. Building Momentum: the Middle Powers Initiative: international NGOs speak out

19. The Global Zero Initiative:individuals of reknown call out Global Zero was created in Paris, 2008 by 100 international leaders who came together saying: WE, THE UNDERSIGNED, believe that to protect our children, our grandchildren and our civilization from the threat of nuclear catastrophe, we must eliminate all nuclear weapons globally. We therefore commit to working for a legally binding verifiable agreement, including all nations, to eliminate nuclear weapons by a date certain.”

20. Building Momentum:High-level Commissions • Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission (chaired by Hans Blix) (sponsored by Sweden) • International Commission for Non-proliferation and Disarmament (sponsored by Australia and Japan)

21. Building Momentum through Development of Technology • Verification is now being used under the START Agreement. • Research into verification is being done by VERTIC, funded through a joint UK-Norway project.

22. Building Moment: Moral Opinion Moral Opinion is reflected, among other ways, through: • repeated calls for disarmament from “Hibakusha” - survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki • repeated calls from the World Council of Churches and the Pope • International Trade Union Confederation • The International Red Cross Society

23. Moral Opinion: Nobel Peace Prize Laureates 32 Laureates have called for the elimination of nuclear weapons. "If the militarily most powerful - and least threatened - states need nuclear weapons for their security, how can one deny such security to countries that are truly insecure?  The present nuclear policy is a recipe for proliferation.  It is a policy for disaster." Josef Rotblat, Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, 1995

24. Moral Opinion:Respected Lay People call for Abolition In Canada, now 502 members of the Order of Canada are calling for work on a Nuclear Weapons Convention.

25. Building Momentum through Legal Opinion We wanted a legal opinion from the International Court of Justice clarifying the law on the use of nuclear weapons. We got it – in July, 1996.

26. International Court of Justice, Advisory Opinion, July 8, 1996 “...the threat or use of nuclear weapons would generally be contrary to the rules of international law applicable in armed conflict, and in particular the principles and rules of humanitarian law.”

27. Building momentum through geographic reductionsNuclear Weapons-Free Zones

28. Nuclear Weapons Free Zones

29. Treaty of Tlatelolco Latin America & Caribbean 33 states Treaty of Rarotonga South Pacific13 States Treaty of Bangkok South East Asia10 States Treaty of Pelindaba Africa52 States Central Asia Nuclear Weapons Free Zone (CANWFZ) 5 states Mongolian NWFZ 1 state

30. Future Nuclear Weapons-Free Zones (NWFZs)?? • Central Europe • Korean Peninsula • Middle East • South Asia • The Arctic

31. What can Canadians do to support this momentum? Somerville House Books, Ltd

32. Groups speak out! In Canada, national groups have organized the Canadian Network to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. See our website www.abolishnuclearweapons.ca

34. Letters, Letters, Letters • Write to: • The Prime Minister • The Minister of Foreign Affairs, and • Your MP • Let them know you want Canada to do serious financial, diplomatic and political work on a ban on nuclear weapons.

35. Go and visit your MP!

36. Education Educate yourself, friends and family. Join a peace group or form your own. Encourage your class or group of friends to learn about nuclear weapons.

37. For basic background information www.ploughsharescalgary.ca www.ploughshares.ca www.abolishnuclearweapons.org For information about UN activities: www.reachingcriticalwill.org www.un.org

38. Media Send letters to the editor and write opinion articles. Call for media reporting on progress on abolition. Seek out alternative media sources. Respond to TV and radio talk shows.

39. Make a financial contribution