As a follow-up of a historic international conference on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons (Oslo, March 2013), the government of Mexico hosted a 2nd international conference from 13-14 February 2014 in Nuevo Vallarta, a residential resort community in the state of Nayarit, to build momentum for an ambitious diplomatic process that puts the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons the essence of nuclear disarmament efforts and achievement of a nuclear weapons free world, NTI reports.
Delegations representing 146 States from every region of the world, the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement and civil society organizations, participated in that conference. Delegations from at least 32 governments in Africa participated in the meeting. Discussions focused on the global and long-term consequences of any nuclear detonation, accidental or deliberate, from the perspective and concerns of the 21st century society, including areas such as public health, humanitarian assistance, the economy, development and environmental issues, climate change, food security, and risk management.
Analysis
Presentations and statements during the Nayarit conference substantiated nuclear weapons are dangerous and destructive, as in Oslo before it. Information and analysis of the catastrophic humanitarian consequence of a nuclear weapon detonation or a nuclear exchange by expert panelists from UN agencies, academics, former military officials, and civil society organizations emphasized that the continued existence, possession, and deployment of nuclear weapons anyway in the world is an existential threat to the future of humanity and the planet. The evidence presented also underscored the mere existence of nuclear weapons generates serious risk because the bomb may be used by accident and design. Many of the studies presented at the conference brought attention to numerous instances where the incidence of an accidental nuclear detonation has hung on a razor’s edge.
While a dozen delegations expressed skepticism about the possibility of a ban on nuclear weapons, the statements by over 50 countries unequivocally called for the total elimination of nuclear weapons and the achievement of the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons. Mexico’s Foreign Minister, Dr. Jose Antonio Meade Kuribrena, led the charge, expressing his government’s position that nuclear weapons must be banned and that the world’s safety cannot rely on weapons of mass destruction. Most of participating African governments supported Mexico’s call to start a diplomatic process conducive to achieve a ban on nuclear weapons.
The conferences in Nayarit and Oslo have cemented the conviction among states that nuclear weapons must be banned once and for all, stated Malawi, and that it is the duty of states to start the negotiations of a legally-binding ban. Along the same lines, Morocco stated that Nayarit presented an important informal intergovernmental forum to launch a political dialogue and concrete action essential to achieve “the noble goal of banning nuclear weapons”. Furthermore, Zambia made a strong appeal for a ban on the use, production, and stockpiling of nuclear weapons, saying that a comprehensive ban had “gained grip” in the international stage over the past couple of years. A ban is the preferred first step towards the elimination of nuclear weapons, it said.
The idea of multilateral nuclear disarmament is as old as the bomb itself. Survivors, people who experienced direct- and after-effects of a deliberate nuclear detonation or testing, shared their experiences on the scope and duration of nuclear effects. Five Hibakusha, survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, testified on the nightmarish devastation inflicted on those cities and their inhabitants. Their presence and stories were powerful reminders to the international community of the urgency and the overwhelming importance of the need to assure humanity these weapons will never be used again, by design, miscalculation, or accident. Countries such as Algeria, Belarus, Kazakhstan, the Marshall Islands, New Zealand, and Ukraine presented shocking statistics on the extent of the impact of nuclear testing on and near territories, causing severe ecological, economic, and public health impacts, and untold suffering to civilians.
The Conference did not produce a negotiated outcome, but a factual summary under the responsibility of the Chair. “Nayarit is a point of no return,” concluded the Chair of the conference. In his summary of the meeting, he called for the development of new international standards on nuclear weapons, including a legally-binding instrument. The time has come, he argued, for a diplomatic process to reach this goal, within a specified time frame. He called for this process to conclude by the 70th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The Oslo and Nayarit Conferences provided unique platforms for sharing factual and technical information on the humanitarian consequences of a nuclear detonation among governments, international organizations and civil society. By sharing national experiences and response capabilities, the participants unanimously concluded that no known emergency preparedness and national capacity exist in the world to protect the population in cities from the humanitarian catastrophe of a nuclear explosion.
This is why nuclear weapon-free states from all regions of the world more than ever have expressed interest in a new path to nuclear disarmament within the framework of humanitarian discourse, writes NTI. Contrarily to pursuing a step-by-step process of nuclear disarmament that requires “good faith” negotiation from nuclear armed states, trying a concomitant comprehensive approach that bans nuclear weapons overcomes the dilemma posed by placing the onus on the nuclear-armed weapons states to lead a process for nuclear disarmament. Invigorated by the confab on the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons that allows and demands the participation of all countries in the world, these countries are building a momentum to take action to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe. There is a place for both comprehensive and step-by-step approaches that are explicitly tied to disarmament and backed by regular reviews of how the steps are being implemented.
The conference is a relevant process in the elimination of nuclear weapons and achievement of a nuclear-free world. In the view of the Chair, the effort is consistent with government obligations under international law, including those derived from the NPT as well as from Common Article 1 to the Geneva Conventions, it is important to deepen citizens understanding of the effects of nuclear weapons, by approaching the global and long-term consequences of a nuclear detonation, accidental or deliberate, from the perspective and variables of the 21st Century society. In this vein, it is a platform for governments, international organizations and civil society to participate with multi-sectorial delegations, at expert-level, with specialists in areas such as public health, humanitarian assistance, environmental issues, and civilian protection, among others, as well as diplomats and military experts.
The Nayarit conference, and the Oslo conference before it, succeeded in presenting a facts-based approach to espouse broad-based and comprehensive discussions on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons that may commit States and civil society to reach new international standards and norms, through a legally binding instrument. During the conference itself, most of the 146 governments present demanded concrete political and legal action against nuclear weapons. Those states called specifically for a treaty banning nuclear weapons more than in the first conference. Nuclear weapons are the most dangerous weapons of mass destruction in the world. Their destructive power cannot be circumscribe to a determined time and place, states the Chair’s summary, which builds upon the conclusions reached in Oslo.
More importantly, the conference puts urgency on a comprehensive approach to meet the goal of global nuclear disarmament. For decades, it has rarely been espoused seriously by the great powers. Rather, disarmament has been used mainly as a rhetorical tool to encourage political support for nuclear non-proliferation and peaceful atomic cooperation initiatives by NPT non-nuclear weapons. Recent calls for nuclear disarmament by senior statesmen around the world including those of nuclear-weapon states have put a more serious tone on the subject. The well-publicized conversions of national security leaders to the disarmament cause shows a growing global support for the urgency to negotiate an agreement that eliminates all nuclear weapons, verifiably and irreversibly, from all nations as the only and permanent solution to prevent their use. The conference on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons is a path towards a comprehensive approach to a nuclear free world and it is gaining momentum.
On the first day of the Nayarit conference, Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz announced his government shall host a follow-up meeting later this year about the damage and risks of nuclear weapons. Building upon the conclusions of the ground-breaking meeting in Norway last year and the recent meeting in Mexico, a Third Conference next year on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons in Austria will broaden the discussion, deepen the momentum, anchor those conclusions, and take them forward in the process to outlaw and ban nuclear weapons. Looking forward, many delegations expressed their wish and the Conference reiterated the invitation to nuclear weapon States and States non-parties to the NPT to take par in the Third Conference, in Austria.
In conclusion, the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons detonations has increasingly been recognized as a fundamental and global concern that must be at the core of all deliberations on nuclear disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation, as well as a relevant issue in the 21st century global security agenda.
The Nayarit conference was the second to be held on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons. In March 2013, Norway hosted the first conference on this subject. On 13 February 2014 morning, on the first day of the Nayarit conference, the government of Austria announced that it would host a third conference to continue the dialogue. Now that an intergovernmental conference has begun on the catastrophic results of nuclear weapons, civil society and academic experts can discuss on panels with government representatives to build momentum and confidence for a treaty banning nuclear weapons.