NGOs call on ICNND to reflect momentum for nuclear-free world
Anti-nuclear NGO members on October 17 urged an international commission led by the Japanese and Australian governments to reflect the growing momentum for a world without nuclear weapons in its recommendations at a meeting in Hiroshima City.
The meeting was held prior to the fourth round of talks of the International Commission on Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament (ICNND) from October 18 to 20 in Hiroshima City.
The ICNND was established at the joint initiative of Japan and Australian governments.
The meeting clearly illustrated the distance between the ICNND and anti-nuclear NGOs in their opinions. In response to the NGOs' demand that the international commission's recommendations scheduled to be issued next January be in accordance with the current favorable opportunity for the global abolition of nuclear weapons, the ICNND claimed that it should include practical measures.
Mayors of two atomic-bombed cities, Akiba Tadatoshi (Hiroshima City) and Taue Tomihisa (Nagasaki City), urged commission members to listen to the voices of A-bomb survivors (Hibakusha). Taue called on them to create ambitious and concrete recommendations to realize Hibakusha's wishes for nuclear weapons to be eliminated before they die.
ICNND Japan NGO Network Co-chair Naito Masayoshi, who also represents the Japan Association of Lawyers against Nuclear Arms, pointed out that the ICNND in drafting its recommendations reportedly wants to delay a deadline it initially set for nuclear weapons states to declare that they would not use nuclear weapons in a first strike. "(Putting off the target) represents deviations from the thoughts of Hibakusha. The draft must be revised to reflect the demands of civic society," said Naito.
Gareth Evans, the ICNND co-chair and former Australian foreign minister, responded that it is meaningless to compile recommendations with idealistic perspectives and that they must be based on practical and realistic goals.
The network has urged the ICNND to include the following points in its recommendations: set a clear goal for the abolition of nuclear weapons; call for negotiations for a treaty to ban such weapons; set procedures for adoption of a no-first-use doctrine and establishment of a nuclear-free region; and review the concept of "extended deterrence".
- Akahata, October 18 & 19, 2009