The blogosphere is atwitter that the great global gun grab has begun now that the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) First Conference of States Parties (CSP1) has commenced in Cancun, Mexico.
Adam Weinstein’s brilliant piece “It’s a U.N. ‘Gun Grab’ — Reach for Your Wallets!” in the new “The Trace” is a great retort and analysis.
But let’s get back to reality and the vital importance of a robustly implemented ATT, and the millions of lives and livelihoods that are at stake today.
Writing in the Reaching Critical Will ATT Monitor Ray Acheson of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom quotes Peter Maurer, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in his video statement at the opening session of the CSP1: Read more…
Photo: Sean Clee – Courtesy of Control Arms Coalition
Millions of lives continue to be devastated and every continent marred by armed violence. Now the world has a chance to change this.
In ten days States will come together for the first annual meeting of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), where they must make important decisions about how it will be implemented. Read more…
Ukraine conflict risks nuclear war
[IPPNW co-presidents Ira Helfand and Vladimir Garkavenko have sent the following letter to Presidents Barack Obama of the United States and Vladimir Putin of Russia, expressing the Federation’s concern over the continuing conflict in Ukraine between two heavily armed nuclear States. Dr. Helfand is a member of the board of IPPNW’s US affiliate, Physicians for Social Responsibility. Dr. Garkavenko is a member of the board of IPPNW’s Russian affiliate, Russian Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War.]
Dear Presidents Obama and Putin:
We write this letter to you in our capacity as co-presidents of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) because we are deeply concerned about the conflict in Ukraine and the risk that nuclear weapons will be used in this conflict. Read more…
What can happen while you change trains
Earlier today I watched a short video about the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima—one of many that have found their way online to mark the 70th anniversary of the defining moment in human history: the moment when humankind acquired weaponry that could bring history itself to an end. Read more…
The recent announcement of a nuclear deal between the governments of Iran and other major nations, including the United States, naturally draws our attention to the history of international nuclear arms control and disarmament agreements. What accounts for their advent on the world scene and what have they accomplished? Read more…
[The following statement was issued today by the IPPNW Executive Committee.]
The agreement on Iran’s nuclear programs announced today by Iran and the United States is welcome news for a number of reasons. The terms of the deal, negotiated over a 20-month period by diplomats from Iran and six other States, should assure the international community that Iran will continue to abide by its obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). There are no nuclear weapons in Iran today, and compliance with the agreement will make it far less likely that Iran can acquire nuclear weapons in the future. The US Senate, which has insisted upon its right to ratify the agreement, must now act responsibly and do so without delay or partisan bickering. Read more…
Dr. Omolade Oladejo addresses delegates at the UN PoA MGE2
IPPNW doctors are playing a key role in integrating public health information into the dialogue of the United Nations Programme of Action on Small Arms Second Meeting of Governmental Experts underway in New York this week.
“You cannot have development without health, and you cannot have health in the midst of armed violence,” said Dr. Omolade Oladejo of the Society of Nigerian Doctors for the Welfare of Mankind during the NGO presentations to delegates. Read more…
The tail wagged the dog! Who cares?
The Review conference of the Non-proliferation Treaty ended Friday, May 22, without a final document being accepted. Up until the very end it seemed that the conference would end with a non-committal document. The outcome that a majority of the states desired—a plan for a total ban on nuclear weapons, as there is for chemical and bacteriological weapons—was unacceptable to the nuclear-weapon states. Read more…
Outcome? What outcome?
After the NPT Review Conference was over, we couldn’t get out of the building. The place was deserted. All those grim security men who had barred any shortcuts had gone home. Eventually we found a last door open at the other side of the building. It was Friday evening of Memorial Weekend in New York. The subway was full of young faces, singing along to a boombox, on their way to parties. Life goes on and nothing had changed just because a few hundred people had spent the last four weeks in air-conditioned rooms, talking about nuclear weapons till they were blue in the face.
In the end there was no agreement. Read more…
[Guest editorial reprinted with permission from Reaching Critical Will’s NPT News in Review]
Ray Acheson, Reaching Critical Will of WILPF
The final document of the NPT Review Conference was prevented from being adopted by Israel—a non-state party. The US, UK, and Canada issued statements refusing to accept the proposal on convening a meeting about potentially developing a Middle East weapon of mass destruction free zone, thus preventing the adoption of what would have been the weakest disarmament outcome in the Treaty’s recent history. Instead, the outcome from this Conference is the Humanitarian Pledge, representing a commitment of more than 100 states to work for the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons. Read more…
Bimal Khadka
Bjorn Hilt
Charles K. Johnson
Gunnar Westberg
IPPNW
John Loretz
Lawrence Wittner
Maria Valenti
mollymcgint
Sue Wareham
Tilman Ruff
Tim Wright
Xanthe Hall
IPPNW peace and health blog 