Date/Time
Date(s) - Monday - Jul 22, 2024
1:15 pm - 3:45 pm
Location
United Nations Office at Geneva
Categories
Summary:
The session will address the current geopolitical shifts that are leading toward polarization and possibly toward a new Cold War. In this context, Nuclear Weapons Free Zone (NWFZs) play a key role in providing stability and strategic balance by ensuring that these territories reject any presence of nuclear weapons and by advocating for nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament. While there are 5 existing NWFZs, only one had legal guarantees. Moreover, single states that do not find themselves in one of the zones remain excluded, representing an Achilles’ heel for the NWFZ regime and limits their ability to reduce nuclear tensions in our divided world.
The session will then shift focus to strategies that strengthen and enhance the resilience of NWFZs, emphasize their complementary role alongside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), and advocate for a new study on NWFZs that includes more regions, single-state zones, and legal guarantees. Finally, we will explore the role of civil society in advocating for this study and the broader cause of nuclear disarmament.
Aim of the session:
- Discuss the current geopolitical shifts leading to polarization and a potential new Cold War.
- Highlight the role of Nuclear Weapons Free Zones (NWFZs) in providing stability and strategic balance by rejecting the presence of nuclear weapons.
- Examine the advocacy for nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament through NWFZs.
- Discuss how NWFZs complement the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).
- Address the limitations of existing NWFZs, including the fact that only one had legal guarantees and that individual states outside these zones remain excluded.
- Emphasize the importance of convening a new study on NWFZs that makes the regime more inclusive by incorporating more regions, single-state zones, and legal guarantees.
- Underline the important positive role that non-committed Non Nuclear Weapon States (NNWSs) can play in strengthening strategic balance and stability.
- Highlight the role of civil society in advocating for the study and for broader nuclear disarmament efforts
- Bring NWFZs into the work around a Fourth Special Session on Disarmament (SSOD-IV) in preparation to the Summit of the Future
Agenda:
Moderator: Alain Rouy, Mouvement de la Paix and IPB Vice President
Speakers:
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Reiner Braun, International Peace Bureau (IPB)
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Alain Ponce Blancas, Oficial de Investigación y Comunicación (OPANAL)
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Enobot Agboraw, African Commission on Nuclear Energy (AFCONE)
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Enkhsaikhan Jargalsaikhan, Blue Banner and IPB
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Leonardo Bandarra, Middle East Treaty Organization (METO)
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