| The First Committee on disarmament of the UN General Assembly opened for general debate from October 7 until the end of next week, where governments will be exchanging views about a range of disarmament issues, including nuclear weapons. Following the general debate, there will be three days dedicated exclusively to the nuclear weapons issue. As always, ICAN will be encouraging states to continue, build upon and/or announce their support for negotiations on a ban treaty.
Be sure to read this article by Beatrice which provides and overview of what to look out for at this year’s first committee: http://www.icanw.org/campaign-news/three-new-resolutions-to-watch-out-for-this-first-committee/
Schedule
7 October – 16 October: First Committee, General Debate: During this period, government delegations will deliver general statements, which cover a variety of disarmament issues, including nuclear weapons.
19 October – 21 October: Thematic debate, Nuclear Weapons Delegations will be delivering statements focused on Nuclear Weapons.
2 November: First Committee concludes. Delegations will vote for the resolutions that have been tabled.
ICAN’s Key Messages for Governments
Drawn from our briefing paper, here are our main messages for governments over the next few weeks:
- Delegations should highlight that any use of nuclear weapons would have catastrophic humanitarian consequences, and that such consequences make it imperative to prohibit nuclear weapons.
- Delegations should support the humanitarian pledge to fill the legal gap on the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons.
- Delegations should support proposals and resolutions for negotiations of a new treaty banning nuclear weapons to commence urgently in a forum open to all and blockable by none, even without the participation of nuclear-armed states.
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STATEMENT OUTREACH
- A key focus for our advocacy will be to ensure that governments deliver strong messages in their statements during the General Debate (7 Oct – 16 Oct) and the Nuclear Weapons debate (19 Oct – 21 Oct).
- Review ICAN’s messages for governments (see above) and encourage your government to deliver a strong statement at the United Nations.
- You may also wish to see what your government has said at previous First Committee meetings. Statements can be accessed through the Reaching Critical Will page: http://reachingcriticalwill.org/disarmament-fora/unga/2015
PLEDGE OUTREACH
- Burkina Faso, Tanzania, Nauru, Mongolia, Namibia Ghana are the most recent countries to have endorsed the Humanitarian Pledge We’re now up to 119 states!Let’s keep this momentum going during the First Committee.
- Check out this link for countries who have already supported Pledge:http://www.icanw.org/pledge/
- These countries have NOT yet indicated their support for the pledge: Albania, Algeria, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, China, Comoros, Croatia, Czech Republic, Dem. Rep. of Congo, Denmark, Equatorial Guinea, Estonia, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Holy See, Hungary, Iceland, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Laos, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Maldives, Mali, Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, North Korea, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Korea, South Sudan, Spain, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tonga, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States of America, Uzbekistan
RESOLUTIONS
As you have seen from Beatrice’s update, there are three resolutions that we are paying particular attention to this year. Let’s make sure our governments are aware of them and will consider voting in favour:
- “Joint Statement resolution”: This resolution contains almost exactly the same text as the Humanitarian Joint Statement which was delivered at the NPT Review Conference earlier this year, and was endorsed by 159 states.
- “Pledge resolution”: Support for the Humanitarian Pledge has reached 119 states. Austria, together with Mexico, Ireland and South Africa have decided to submit the Pledge as a resolution so that it will become. This will force the hesitant governments to make up their minds. They’ve certainly had long enough to decide!
- “Negotiations resolution”: This resolution proposes to set up an open-ended working group with a mandate to negotiate new legal instruments based on the humanitarian imperative to prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons.
HOW TO FOLLOW ALONG WITH THE PROCEEDINGS:
- Watch / Listen. You can find a live stream of the statements here on the UN WebTV site: http://webtv.un.org/
- Read. All the statements will be posted on Reaching Critical Will’s website (see link above). Reaching Critical Will also publishes its weekly First Committee Monitor which provides in-depth coverage of the proceedings. Click here to read the first issue and to subscribe.
- Tweet. Governments are getting more and more engaged and responsive with social media. If you are a Twitter user, keep track of the proceedings by following the #goodbyenukes and #FirstCommittee hashtags. Get involved with the discussion by tweeting at governments. You can find a list of the twitter accounts of Foreign Ministers and diplomatic missions here: https://twitter.com/Twiplomacy/lists/foreign-affairs/members
- Instagram. Do you use Instagram? ICANers who are on site in New York will be posting photos and comments with our Instagram account @goodbyenukes and using the hashtag #goodbyenukes
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