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Rekindling Hope for a Nuclear-Free World as Negotiations toward a Nuclear Arms Convention Begin
August 4, 2010
Joint declaration by the secretary for peace issues of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) Renke Brahms and the president of the German section of Pax Christi, Bishop Heinz Josef Algermissen:
August 6 and 9, 2010 marked the 65th anniversary of the nuclear attacks on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The haunting memory of the death of hundreds of thousands of people remains a warning to us not to allow the use of nuclear weapons ever again.
This year, the vision of a nuclear-free world has taken on new political significance, not only because of US president Obama's speech in Prague, but also because of the numerous people who, prior to the Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) held in May 2010, called for the elimination of all nuclear weapons. The millions of persons from all over the world-including 14 million in Japan alone and the 25,000 in Germany who took part in the "For a nuclear-free future" campaign-are a visible sign of the common dream worldwide of a new reality that does not include nuclear arms. A world without such terrifying weapons is not utopian, but rather a distinct obligation on the part of the signatories of the nonproliferation treaty.
As long as nuclear weapons exist, there exists the risk and the incentive for further proliferation. Civilian use of nuclear power entails the danger that materials produced for civilian uses are transformed into weapons-grade material. Military strategies that include nuclear weapons for purposes of security and defense, or as a factor of power, hamper the process of international disarmament and nonproliferation. Only by overcoming nuclear deterrence through the prohibition and complete elimination of all weapons of mass destruction will it be possible to banish the threat that these weapons pose.
Peace demands honesty, and credibility can only be achieved when international agreements are strictly adhered to. This is also the foundation on which trust-building measures in favor of global security and a global nonproliferation policy must be based. In this regard, by once again failing to fulfill the promise to disarm, the outcomes of this year's review conference are insufficient. What was indeed achieved, namely the drafting of another joint outcome document, rescues the nonproliferation treaty per se, but does not make any progress toward disarmament as provided for in Article VI of the 42-year old treaty. By not defining a timeline for implementing the action plan contained in the outcome document, nuclear weapon states are sending the wrong message to the majority of countries who, in the nonproliferation treaty, committed themselves to renounce nuclear arms. To deter states who already possess the technical capability to equip themselves with nuclear arms from further pursuing their nuclear programs, the nuclear weapon states must underpin their intentions with specific commitments. If nuclear arms build-up and proliferation are to be checked, it is not enough to reaffirm an agreement that had been made long ago.
Important intermediary measures provided for in the outcome document, such as the call to reduce the role and significance of nuclear weapons in security plans and strategies, remain non-binding. What is particularly disappointing is the fact that an agreement on the short-term withdrawal of US nuclear weapons from non-nuclear weapon states in Europe such as Germany, and the obligation on the part of nuclear weapon states to cease modernizing their arsenals, to halt the production of military-grade fissile materials and to submit existing stockpiles to international inspection has not been reached.
The international community is now faced with the challenge of elaborating a new framework for attaining the genuine elimination of nuclear weapons. With this goal in mind, 118 of the 190 states attending the May review conference in New York called for negotiations on a Nuclear Weapons Convention, modeled after the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Ottawa Antipersonnel Mine Ban Treaty.
The Government of Gemany should support this approach and push for the launching as soon as possible of multilateral negotiations on a treaty regulating the verifiable elimination of nuclear weapons in a transparent and concrete way and within a defined time frame. Indeed, international negotiations aimed at a nuclear weapons convention constitute a new opportunity to ward off the dangers posed by the existence of nuclear means of mass destruction and to totally eliminate such weapons.
Responsibility for content:
Press Office of the EKD
Silke Römhild
Hanover/Berlin, 4. August 2010
Please note that this press release was issued simultaneously by the press office of Pax Christi. We apologize to those who have received it in duplicate.
For further information on the EKD secretary for peace issues go to: http://www.ekd.de/ekd_kirchen/rat/brahms.html