Overview 2010 Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Conference

2010 Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference

Background: The NPT was put into effect in 1970.  It is considered to be the cornerstone international treaty pertaining to nuclear weapons control and disarmament.  The Treaty has been ratified by 190 countries.  India, Israel and Pakistan have not signed or ratified the Treaty and have developed nuclear weapons since it was put in to force. North Korea did ratify the Treaty but announced its withdrawal in 2003.    

The NPT has 3 pillars:

1)" Non- nuclear weapons states" agreed not to seek or develop nuclear weapons and agreed to accept safeguards on their nuclear activities. 

2) All states including the five "nuclear states" agreed to pursue negotiations toward nuclear disarmament.

3) All states agreed to recognize the "right" to develop and use nuclear energy without discrimination. 

Review Conferences; the NPT states parties meet every five years to "review the Treaty".  The purpose of these conferences is to promote implementation, enhancement and strengthen the Treaty and it's pillars. 

At the 25th anniversary Treaty Review Conference in 1995, the treaty was extended indefinitely.

Also adopted at that conference were  principles and objectives for achieving nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament.  

Additionally it adopted a resolution on the Middle East with the ultimate goal of developing a nuclear weapons free zone.  

 

2010 NPT Review Conference;  This 40th year anniversary Conference will be held at the UN from May 3rd - 28th.  Representatives from each of the 190 state's parties will attend in addition to NGO's with expertise and interest in this process.  This year's conference comes at an historic time in the nuclear age.  Never before has there been the intensity of effort and will to work toward realization of the Treaty goals. Organizations that have worked for this goal for decades are now being joined by policy wonks and leaders the world over as all realize that there is no survival in the real sense of nuclear war or attack and that prevention and disarmament are the only solution.  As PSR says: "Prevent what we can not cure".

A partial list of leaders in this effort include;

- Professional medical scientific organizations like PSR/IPPNW  - Physicians for Social Responsibility / International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War who have articulated the devastating human and environmental health risks of even a single nuclear explosion.  (www.psr.org, www.ippnw.org).

- Grassroots campaigns like ICAN - International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons and Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons Free World have united hundreds of groups around the world in this effort. Additional organizations in communities all  around the world have played a role in getting us to this point in history.  (www.ippnw.org, www.nuclearweaponsfree.org)

- Government leaders from the International Mayors for Peace and their "2020 Vision" Campaign (www.2020visioncampaign.org) calling on world leaders to eliminate global nuclear weapons by the year 2020 to the bipartisan U.S. group of four cold war veteran defense policy architects including Henry Kissinger, Sam Nunn, George Schultz and WIlliam Perry (Nuclear Threat Initiative - www.nti.org.) who have called on U.S. leadership to initiate the steps toward eliminating all global nuclear weapons.  President Obama articulated his vision in Prague April 2009 of a world without nuclear weapons.  Jordan's Queen Noor's  Global Zero (www.globalzero.org) effort has been endorsed by leaders in politics and thought throughout the world.       

- You- survey's done the world over show overwhelming public support for the elimination of nuclear weapons. 

The ultimate goal - ELIMINATING WAR itself.   I am honored to be representing Beyond War (www.beyondwar.org) which is the only group I know of that is working to identify the "best practice" existing today to resolve conflicts without war.  For if we eliminate nuclear weapons without eliminating the archaic institution of war itself it is only a matter of time before these instruments of war return.  It has been a remarkable experience to connect the dots and make the connection.