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WHAT'S NEW IN INES? |
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No.26/2000 |
Dateline: September 15, 2000 |
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This is the weekly electronic information service of the International Network of Engineers and Scientists for Global Responsibility
Editor: Tobias Damjanov, e-mail:
INES homepage: http://inesglobal.org
INES International Office
INES Chair: Prof. Armin Tenner
CONTENTS of WNII No. 26/2000
Abolition 2000 homepage: http://www.abolition2000.org Grassroots News: http://www.napf.org/abolition2000/news/
The Uppsala Declaration on Nuclear Weapon-Free Zones
The international seminar "Nuclear Weapon-Free Zones: Crucial Steps Towards a Nuclear Free World", held at Stockholm, 1-4 September, the following Declaration was issued:
A decade after the end of the Cold War, the world faces a stark choice: achieve the complete abolition of nuclear weapons, or face a second Nuclear Age with new generations of even more horrifying nuclear and other high-tech weapons.
We believe there is an urgent moral, political, legal and security imperative to abolish these weapons, and build a strong momentum towards complete global nuclear disarmament. This is a precondition for human and environmental security.
Therefore, more than 50 scholars, peace activists, diplomats and experts from six continents met on September 1 - 4, 2000, at Uppsala in Sweden. The conference, convened by the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, the Transnational Institute, Peace Depot, Gensuikin (Japan Congress Against A- & H-Bombs) and INESAP (International Network of Engineers & Scientists Against Proliferation), discussed the feasibility of establishing Nuclear Weapon-Free Zones (NWFZs) across the world.
The dramatic threat of a new Nuclear Age highlights the urgent need for comprehensive nuclear disarmament and rapid destruction of the arsenals of all nuclear weapons-states. It also calls for incremental measures towards these goals. These include a nuclear test ban, a missile flight test ban, separation of warheads from missiles, a ban on the production of fissile materials used for making nuclear weapons and appropriate disposal or safeguarding of the accumulated stockpiles of such material.
Crucial among these transitional measures are Nuclear Weapon-Free Zones. These would ban the manufacture, deployment and transit of nuclear weapons in specific regions, and demand of nuclear armed states that the zones not be threatened or attacked with nuclear weapons. This would help make it possible to permanently fold the nuclear umbrella, the so-called nuclear protection that nuclear weapon states offer non-nuclear allies.
Such zones already exist in Latin America, the South Pacific, Africa, and Southeast Asia. They have prevented nuclear proliferation in those areas. A new zone is currently being negotiated in Central Asia. Several regions continue to face severe nuclear dangers, a challenge exacerbated by menacing attempts to build both National and Theatre Missile Defence systems. These regions include Northeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Europe. The creation of NWFZs here would not only limit proliferation, but support active nuclear disarmament with the dismantling of overt and clandestine nuclear weapons and fissile stocks and rolling back existing nuclear programmes. Such extension of NWFZs to the Northern hemisphere will enhance collective security and strengthen efforts to completely eliminate nuclear weapons.
An NWFZ treaty in Northeast Asia would effectively address security concerns in Japan and the Korean peninsula. A South Asian NWFZ would prevent India and Pakistan from making or deploying nuclear weapons in this volatile region, where the danger of a nuclear exchange is today the greatest anywhere in the world. In the Middle East, the establishment of a zone free of Israel's nuclear weapons, and all other weapons of mass destruction in the region, represents a key component of regional security. In Central and Eastern Europe an NWFZ would defend the post-Cold War peace gains now threatened by NATO expansion as well as facilitate withdrawal of remaining tactical nuclear weapons.
There are no technological obstacles to effective verification of NWFZ agreements. Establishing such zones requires political will, organisation and mobilisation. We hereby commit ourselves to:
* Creating a Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone Network to coordinate efforts in support of new and existing zones, including actively advocating the creation of NWFZs in Central Asia, Northeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East and Central Europe.
* Public education on the horrors of nuclear weapons, the urgency of nuclear disarmament and the value of NWFZs.
* Supporting the Latin American proposal to the United Nations General Assembly for an international conference of all parties to the Nuclear Weapon-Free Zones.
* Strengthening the existing zones and demanding strict adherence to the treaty provisions by the nuclear weapon-states.
* Engaging policy-makers and parliamentarians worldwide in support of NWFZs.
* Supporting single-country nuclear weapon-free zones.
* Supporting nuclear-free cities, provinces, and other areas governed by local authorities. * Opposing Theatre and National Missile Defence systems as an integral part of our opposition to nuclear weapons.
* Working to defend nuclear whistle-blowers, such as Mordechai Vanunu, now entering his 15th year of imprisonment for having revealed Israel's nuclear arsenal; we demand his immediate release.
Peoples and governments everywhere, as well as the United Nations, have a contribution to make to the creation and expansion of nuclear weapon-free zones. We urge others to join us in mobilising energies and resources towards achieving the noble goal of global nuclear disarmament.
Abolition 2000 Grassroots Newsletter September 2000 (Vol. II Number 6)
The latest Grassroots Newsletter of the Abolition 2000 Network has the following contents:
2002: Rio+10
Rio+10 will be a summit gathering in 2002 of world governments, concerned citizens, United Nations agencies, multilateral financial institutions and other major actors to assess global change since the Earth Summit of 1992. A focused agenda will foster discussion of findings in particular environmental sectors (forests, oceans, climate, energy, fresh water, and so on) as well as in cross-sector areas such as economic conditions, new technologies and globalisation.
This initial stage is crucial to the overall process. Comprehensive data already on hand from local sources worldwide need to be pooled with policy information and analyzed for meaning. Making the outcome meaningful must be a shared responsibility among governments and all major groups. And, the critical analysis must begin now at every level if the findings are to be ready in time for Rio+10.
How is this process best to be undertaken? The CSD (UN Commission on Sustainable Development) Secretariat suggests that in addition to the usual methods, countries organize national competitions that will encourage local groups, community leaders, schools, families, and individuals from all walks of life to look about for evidence of change and bring it to their governments' attention.
The CSD Secretariat is running a website on which it will post news continually: http://www.un.org/rio+10.htm
Also, it is publishing the bimonthly newsletter "CSD Update" which you can find at: http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/csdup.htm
Report: Forest, Trade and Consumption Workshop
A workshop on "Forests, Consumption and Trade, Addressing Unsustainable Consumption and related Trade as an Underlying Cause of Deforestation and Forest Degradation" took place on 2 May 2000 in New York, parallel to the 8th session of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development. The workshop was organized by Friends of the Earth International, an active participant in the Underlying Causes Initiative (UCI).
Presentations included a presentation by Janet Abramovitz of the Worldwatch Institute on the need to change unsustainable production and consumption patterns of forest products and a presentation by Victoria Tauli-Corpuz of the Tebtebba Foundation on the impacts of international timber trade on Indigenous Peoples. Other issues addressed included the impact of the unsustainable production and consumption of non-forest products like meat on forests, and the relationship between the workprogram on changing consumption and production patterns of the Commission on Sustainable Development and the World Trade Organization regime.
The full report of this workshop is available from the Global Secretariat to the Underlying Causes Initiative
or from the WNII Editor.
Declaration of Indigenous Peoples' Forum on Climate Change
The First International Forum of Indigenous Peoples on Climate Change, meeting at Lyon, France, on September 4-6, 2000, has issued a Declaration which is available in English and Spanish from the WNII editor.
Final victory for Aleksandr Nikitin http://www.bellona.no/nikitin/
The Supreme Court Presidium dismissed the appeal from the General Prosecutor's Office Wednesday, 13 September. The prosecution has used up the possibilities to reverse the acquittal of Aleksandr Nikitin. The case that has been lasting for almost five years is finally over!
Aleksandr Nikitin was charged with high treason and disclosure of state secrets by the Russian Security Police, FSB, for co-authoring Bellona report on radwaste hazards in the Russian Northern Fleet. Nikitin was fully acquitted in December 1999. The acquittal verdict was upheld by the Russian Supreme Court in April 2000. In May 2000, the Prosecutor General's Office appealed the acquittal to the Presidium of the Supreme Court.
From the very beginning, INES took a supportive stand for Aleksandr Nikitin, and had declared its solidarity. Repeatedly, WNII reported on this case in the past. We wish Mr. Nikitin all the best for his future!
CONFERENCES, MEETINGS, SEMINARS
International Pollution Prevention Summit
For more details, visit: http://c2p2.sarnia.com (click on "Summit")
ISCO 2000: 11th International Soil Conservation Organization Conference
For more details, visit: http://www.isco2000.org.ar
Earth Technologies Forum
For more details, visit: http://www.earthforum.com/
Third West Africa Water and Environment Conference
For more details, visit: http://www.ace-events.com/WA2000SConf.htm
EECO 2000: Environment and Energy Conference: Business Strategies for Sustainable Economic Growth
For more details, visit: http://www.eeco2000.com
Policy Agendas for Sustainable Technological Innovation Third conference of the European project on Policies for Sustainable Technological Innovation in the 21st Century
For more details, visit: http://www.esst.uio.no/posti/UEL.html
Third Asia-Pacific Conference on Sustainable Energy and Environmental Technologies
For more details, visit: http://www.ust.hk/apc2000
MARCUBA 2000: 5th Congress on Marine Sciences
For more details, visit: http://ioc.unesco.org/iocweb/news/external/marcuba2000_e.htm
International Conference on US National Missile Defense. International Concerns and Campaigns - The Annual Conference and Meeting of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space.
Full details of the programme and registration fees will be available in the near future.
To register your interest, please contact Yorkshire CND:
International Symposium on Biodiversity as a source of new medicines
For more details, visit: http://www.biofarmacongress.com
No new or changed email or web addresses in this issue. All INES e-mail addresses and homepages are available upon request from:
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