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Disarmament and Human security
- Global action plan
- - Implement a global action plan to prevent war.
- Demilitarise
- - Demilitarise the global economy by reducing military budgets and shifting resources toward human security programs.
- Eliminate nuclear weapons
- - Negotiate and ratify an international treaty to eliminate nuclear weapons.
- Prevent use of conventional weapons
- - Prevent proliferation and use of conventional weapons, including light weapons, small arms and guns and safeguard personal security.
- Ban landmines
- - Ratify and implement the landmine ban treaty.
- Prevent weapon development
- - Prevent the development and use of new weapons and new military technologies, including a ban on depleted uranium and the deployment of weapons in space.
- Control biological weapons
- - Encourage universal adherence to and implementation of the biological weapons convention and the chemical weapons convention.
- Accountability
- - Hold states and corporations accountable for the impact of military production, testing and use on the environment and health.
- Civil society movement
- - Build a civil society movement for the abolition of war.
Implement a Global Action Plan to Prevent War
A "Global Action Plan to Prevent War" is required that will complement measures to protect human rights and strengthen nonviolent conflict resolution with the following major steps:
- strengthening global and regional security institutions;
- replacing unilateral military intervention with multilateral defence against aggression and genocide; and
- negotiating deep, phased reductions in military Forces, weapons, and budgets, aiming for a global defensive security system.
Global Action to Prevent War
The Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies, Union of Concerned Scientists and World Order Models Project have launched a Global Action Plan to Prevent War. This is a comprehensive, multi-stage program for moving toward a world in which armed conflict is rare. Global Action urges a mix of enhanced conflict prevention, peacekeeping, disarmament, and measures promoting human rights, non-violent solutions, and the rule of law. Global Action seeks to contribute to the formation of a coalition, including those concerned with non-violent means of conflict resolution and peace education, with tackling root causes of war arising from social and economic injustice, with humanitarian aid, economic development, conflict prevention, peacekeeping, and disarmament, both "conventional" and nuclear.
Demilitarise the Global Economy by Reducing Military Budgets and Shifting Resources Toward Human Security Programs
Peace in the 21st century demands a shift from this century's expenditures on the military to civilian programs that safeguard human security. Disarmament will entail making drastic cuts in weapons, forces and military budgets. Demilitarisation will require transforming the military economy to a peace economy by allocating resources for programs that ensure the well being of the world's citizens - that provide for the basic human rights of food, shelter, education, work, health, security and peace. It will require global adherence to United Nations Charter and to the development of non-military security structures and peacemaking institutions.
As a first step toward disarmament and demilitarisation, we need to endorse the Women's Peace Petition, which calls for a 5% reduction a year for 5 years in military spending and the reallocation of these substantial resources toward human security programs and peace education.
Negotiate and Ratify an International Treaty to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons
The continued existence of nuclear weapons and their threat or use by accident, miscalculation or design, threaten the survival of all humanity and life on earth. In order to comply with their legal obligations under Article VI of the Non-Proliferation Treaty and the mandate of the International Court of Justice, all states should negotiate and conclude within five years a Nuclear Weapons Convention, which would prohibit the production, use and threat of use of nuclear weapons and would provide for verification and enforcement of their destruction.
The New Agenda Coalition's resolution, adopted by the 53rd General
Assembly of the United Nations, calls on the nuclear weapons states to take immediate practical steps to reduce the danger of nuclear war and commence negotiations toward total nuclear disarmament.
Transitional steps toward nuclear disarmament include: ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty; adherence to the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty; de-alerting; no-first use; de-nuclearisation of regional security arrangements; extension of nuclear free zones; transparency of nuclear arsenals and facilities; and a ban on fissile materials and sub-critical tests.
Campaign for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons
In June, 1998, the New Agenda Coalition (NAC) which includes seven courageous governments - Brazil, Egypt, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand,
South Africa and Sweden - challenged the Nuclear Weapons States to implement several immediate practical steps, including de-alerting all nuclear forces. They presented their agenda in a UN resolution, which was adopted in December 1998 by 114 votes to 18. Building on this momentum, a campaign to get nuclear and non-nuclear weapon states to commence negotiations toward the rapid conclusion of a convention to abolish nuclear weapons, as mandated by Article VI of the Non-Proliferation Treaty and by the International Court of Justice, will be launched at the Hague Appeal for Peace by IALANA, INESAP, IPB, IPPNW, Abolition 2000 and Middle Powers Initiative.
Prevent Proliferation and Use of Conventional Weapons, Including Light Weapons, Small Arms and Guns and Safeguard Personal Security
Small arms, light weapons and landmines pose a big threat to human security; their use results in the majority of civilian deaths and has made it easier to exploit young children as soldiers. Full-fledged demobilization programs must reclaim and destroy weaponry and also provide former soldiers with other material benefits and vocational alternatives. We need to endorse the campaign of the International Action Network on Small Arms and calls on all states to negotiate and implement a comprehensive global code of conduct for exports of all types of conventional weapons, including light weapons, small arms and guns.
Steps toward stopping the flow of weapons include: controlling legal transfers between states; monitoring the use and storage of small arms within states; preventing illicit transfers, including transfers to human rights violators; collecting, removing and destroying surplus weapons from regions of conflict; increasing transparency and accountability; reducing demand by reversing cultures of violence; reforming public security institutions; creating norms of non-possession; promoting more effective and sustainable demobilization and reintegration of former combatants.
International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA)
The International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) is a global network of NGOs dedicated to preventing the proliferation and unlawful use of small arms by pushing forward the boundaries for international action.
Ratify and Implement the Landmine Ban Treaty
All states should sign, ratify and adhere to the 1997 Land Mine Ban Treaty, which opened for signature in December 1997 and entered into force on 1 March 1999.
In addition to the vital and urgent task of de-mining, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines puts a high priority on governments destroying their stockpiles of mines as a form of "preventive mine action". It also puts pressure on all States to develop de-mining activities. Transparency on stockpiles and other mine-related matters is essential. Increased funding should be made available for victim assistance, de-mining, mine-awareness education and rehabilitation for children and their communities.
International Campaign to Ban Landmines
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) is campaigning for the universalization, ratification and implementation of the Ottawa mine ban treaty which bans the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of antipersonnel mines. The ICBL also seeks to hold States Parties to the treaty to their commitment to increase mine clearance and victim assistance efforts around the world.
Prevent the Development and Use of New Weapons and New Military Technologies, Including a Ban on Depleted Uranium and the Deployment of Weapons in Space
We call for mechanisms to assess the impact of new weapons (e.g. depleted uranium) and technologies and to determine if new weapons violate international law. Depleted uranium weaponry has been listed among weapons of "mass destruction or with indiscriminate effect" by the United Nations Human Rights subcommittee on the prevention of discrimination and protection of minorities. The Hague Appeal calls upon the international community to address the issue of banning the production, transfer and use of such weapons.
The Outer Space Treaty (1967) bans deployment of weapons of mass destruction in space by any nation. The treaty, ratified by 91 countries, states that nations should avoid activities that could produce harmful contamination of space as well as adverse changes in the environment of earth. This treaty requires universal adherence to prevent the deployment of weapons in space.
Encourage Universal Adherence To and Implementation Of the Biological Weapons Convention and the Chemical Weapons Convention
All States should ratify the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) and the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) as part of a global effort to abolish all weapons of mass destruction. All countries should adopt strong national legislation implementing these treaties without qualifications and should participate in current efforts to enhance compliance with them. No state should take executive or legislative action that dilutes implementation of these treaties.
All state parties that are in compliance with the BWC and CWC should receive equal treatment with respect to trade in dual-purpose agents and equipment covered by these treaties. To insure international accountability, export controls should be managed by organisations established within the framework of the two conventions. Parties to the BWC should strengthen article X, encouraging the exchange of bacteriological information and materials for peaceful purposes.
Research organisations, professional societies, and individual scientists should pledge not to engage knowingly in research or teaching that furthers the development and use of chemical and biological warfare agents. The development of novel biological and chemical agents that to not have unambiguously peaceful purposes should be prohibited, even if these activities are promoted for defensive purposes.
Hold States and Corporations Accountable for the Impact of Military Production, Testing and Use on the Environment and Health
The nuclear weapons states, in particular, must acknowledge their responsibility for the health and environmental impacts of nuclear testing, production and use. We call for greater transparency and accountability of all military activities and their impact on the environment and on health. Governments must introduce or extend programs for monitoring, cleanup and rehabilitation of former military test sites and for compensation to former test site workers and civilian and military personnel at the sites and in neighbouring local communities.
The decommissioning of nuclear and chemical weapons in industrialized countries should not lead to the export of toxic chemical and nuclear wastes to developing countries. States and corporations must make information on the impact of all military production, testing and use at military bases and other sites available to ensure transparency and to facilitate restoration.
Build a Civil Society Movement for the Abolition of War
Abolishing war will require building the institutions and the capacity to safeguard and fully implement the profound achievements of the past (such as the treaties banning chemical and biological weapons, landmines and nuclear testing) as well as to bring about the difficult negotiations to eliminate all nuclear weapons and to stop the flow of small arms and light weapons. We envision a world without violence through a new code of international conduct, which restricts military power and embraces nonviolence and adherence to international law.
Civil society has a central role to play in democratising international relations and strengthening international peacemaking mechanisms. Civil society organizations and citizens have brought the demands of people directly to the international level and have created a "new diplomacy". We affirm the necessary role of civil society in the 21st century in international and trans-national disarmament and security negotiations.
