Disarmament Groups Call for U.S. Participation in Humanitarian Impacts Conference

More than two dozen arms control advocates, nuclear policy experts, former U.S. government officials and leaders of peace and security organizations yesterday issued a letter to three top Obama Administration officials, calling for U.S. participation in the Dec. 8-9 Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons in Vienna. Addressed to National Security Advisor Susan Rice, Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, the letter comes nine days after a top State Department official cautioned against pushing nuclear disarmament discussions into the international humanitarian law arena.

 

Speaking at a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly’s First Committee on Oct. 20, Amb. Robert Wood, special representative to the Conference on Disarmament, stated that any such realignment could hinder implementation of the 2010 NPT Action Plan and that any new UN disarmament mechanism would not fare better than the current NPT agenda. “Contrary to what some of your advisors may allege or fear, the conference is not the start of a diplomatic process for a ban on nuclear weapons or a convention on the elimination of nuclear weapons,” the letter states. “While some participating states and some nongovernmental organizations support such a ban and the negotiation of such a convention, this conference is not a negotiating conference and is not intended or designed to launch such an effort. Even if it were, there is no clear consensus among the participants about the direction of any such process. Rather, the 3rd Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons is intended and designed to highlight the health and environmental dangers of nuclear weapons use, nuclear testing, and nuclear weapons production, and to underscore the urgency for progress on the NPT action plan.” The letter also urges all P5 nuclear-weapon states to attend the conference and support joint statements warning of the consequences of using nuclear weapons.