»Nukleare Abrüstung institutionalisieren«

1.The issue of finding a path toward a nuclear weapons-free world has reappeared on the world's screen with the urgency which it deserves. The conferences on the humanitarian consequences of nuclear explosions, the agreement with Iran, the Nuclear Security Summit and calls to move on to nuclear disarmament summits, reports of nuclear arms racing by the United States of America and the Russian Federation and by India and Pakistan, the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea’s pursuit of deliverable nuclear weapons, all have underscored the necessity of fulfilling a core mission of the Open-ended Working Group, development of legal measures and norms for achieving and sustaining a world without nuclear weapons. The opportunity must not be lost and we are grateful that the Open-ended Working Group has, in Mr. Thani Thongphakdi, Ambassador of Thailand a leader wellaware of the challenge.

2.One of the options before the Open-ended Working Group is a comprehensive instrument on the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons, a nuclear weapons convention (NWC). A Model Nuclear Weapons Convention has been circulated in the United Nations at the request of Costa Rica and Malaysia. The model was drafted by a consortium of experts led by and largely drawn from the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA), the International Network of Engineers and Scientists Against Proliferation (INESAP), and the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW).

3. In this paper, IALANA explains why the model NWC could serve, as United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said, as a “good point of departure” for negotiations on a convention. Taking the Model Nuclear Weapons Convention as a point of departure would discipline the negotiations to at all times remain focused on the end goal to be achieved, the comprehensive prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons. Under the umbrella of negotiations on a comprehensive outcome, supportive measures could be implemented, including unilateral, bilateral and plurilateral reductions, and creation of an official international institutional capability to monitor nuclear weapons. The Model Nuclear Weapons Convention can also serve as a guide to elements of other forms of nuclear disarmament agreements, including a framework agreement.

4. As the Open-ended Working Group continues its deliberations, it is imperative to bear in mind that all states are under a legal obligation under NPT Article VI and also customary international law, as stated by the International Court of Justice, “to pursue in good faith and bring to a conclusion negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament in all itsaspects under strict and effective international control.” To fulfil that obligation, negotiations aimed at complete nuclear disarmament must first of all begin, which the Open-ended Working Groupshould do its utmost to facilitate.

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