Message-Id: <199609030258.MAA24712@peg.apc.org>
To: foesydney
Subject: Letter to UNGA
Cc: abolition-caucua@igc.apc.org, conf:foe.oz, disarmtimes@igc.apc.org
Status: RO
From: foesydney@peg.apc.org Friends of the Earth Sydney,
Australia Suite15 104 Bathurst Street Sydney, NSW, Australia 2000.
p(61)(2)9283-2004 Fax(61)(2)9283-2005.
To: All Ambassadors to the UN.
Dear Ambassador: I am writing to you with regard to the
Australian proposal for a special session of the United Nations
General Assembly to discuss the comprehensive test-ban treaty.
This is possibly the most important single issue that the UNGA
will have to deal with over the next few years, and certainly the
issue with the most far-reaching implications, not only for
nuclear weapons nations but for the entire planet .
Non-governmental organisations of both a national and
international nature such as FOE, IPPNW, CND, Abolition2000, IEER,
and many others have worked for many years toward the objective of
a zero-threshold comprehensive test-ban treaty as an essential
step toward the total elimination of nuclear weapons.
The recent judgement of the International Court of Justice
recommended unanimously that there was an obligation on the part
of nations to negotiate in good faith toward the complete
elimination of nuclear weapons, and the recent report of the
Canberra Commission recommends a comprehensive test-ban as a first
step in that direction.
The current treaty text has many features which are disappointing
to us. In particular, we are disappointed that the preamble does
not contain the firm, time-bound, framework for elimination of
nuclear weapons or at least for negotiations on their elimination
to take place that we had hoped. The lack of such a framework in
the preamble was a major reason for India's refusal to sign the
treaty. However, it is possible for steps to be taken to address
these problems outside the framework of this specific treaty, and
this should be done.
In addition, we are very disturbed to see that the treaty contains
provisions for entry into-force that may mean that it never
actually enters into force.
We are especially worried that the P5 nuclear nations, especially
the UK, Russia, and China have stated that they are unwilling to
countenance changes to the preamble and to entry-into-force,
although almost any EIF formula for the treaty would actually be
better than the one we now have. That the UK, Russia, and China
have elected to defend an EIF formula that essentially ensures
that the treaty is unlikely ever to formally enter into force at
all save by a miracle is extraordinary and tragic.
Nonetheless, we feel that the treaty, for all its defects, does
represent a real and substantial move in the direction of the
elimination of nuclear weapons from the planet. This is the goal
toward which we strive, and NGOs worldwide will not rest until we
have achieved this. The recent decision of the ICJ and the
submission by the Australian Government of the final report of the
Canberra Commission also move us toward this goal, and both the
ICJ decision and the Canberra Commission report should be used to
form a basis for additional measures outside the text of the CTBT,
to move toward the elimination of nuclear weapons by the P5.
In addition, the current attitude of the P5 and especially the UK,
Russia, and France, regrettable though it is, places us in a
quandary. Amendments to the text that might otherwise improve it,
could have the effect of causing the P5 or key members of the P5,
to refuse to sign the CTBT. This would render the treaty all-but
valueless. Worse, it could cause the entire negotiating process to
dissolve in recrimination, and that is the last thing that we
would wish to happen. Indeed, this must not happen.
A successful signing of the CTBT, accompanied with massive support
for it will on the other hand, make it impossible for the P5 to so
easily walk away from it if they so desire, and will create
precisely the kind of impetus so necessary to produce the
'miracle' of a successful entry-into-force.
The collapse of negotiations for the CTBT could mean the
resumption of nuclear testing, and that must not be allowed to
happen. In fact, NGOs world-wide will be pushing for the cessation
of forms of testing not prohibited in the treaty such as
'subcritical' testing, and testing in cyberspace.
Successful signature of the CTBT will mean that a non-testing
international norm is established whereby nations who test nuclear
weapons can expect ostracism and outrage on the part of the
international community, rather than respect based on fear, and
will have to face sanctions and other measures designed to bring
an end to their testing programs.
Once such a norm is established, it is unlikely that any country
would be able to ignore it with impunity whether or not they have
signed the CTBT, and whether or not the CTBT has actually entered
into force, providing it has been overwhelmingly supported in
UNGA.
It is therefore crucial that the CTBT receives your country's
enthusiastic support, in spite of the efforts by some powerful
countries to weaken its effectiveness.
If you are a non-weapons country, then we call on you to support
the Australian text of the CTBT, and not to weaken its support by
amendments at this point.
One possible course of action that your country could take in
conjunction with others, is to attempt to place the maximum of
pressure on the P5 countries to adopt a less rigid attitude to
EIF, and to the inclusion of a time-bound committment to complete
nuclear disarmament or at least to negotiations leading to that
goal, either in the preamble to the treaty or else via a paralell
resolution in the UNGA. If you decide to take such a course, it
should be done with the greatest care and in a manner such as not
to imperil the treaty as a whole.
We ask most fervently that any country that for whatever reason
wants to act as a 'spoiler' for the treaty be completely isolated,
whether they are a weapons nation, a 'threshold' nation, or any
other nation. The treaty is too important to be held hostage to
any country's particular political agenda.
If you are the ambassador of a weapons state, we ask you to
re-examine whether you can in all conscience regard the current
EIF as a 'sacred cow', and to adopt a negotiating stance that will
ensure positively that the CTBT, supported by the vast majority
of both the governments and NGO's of the world, and by the people
of the world, is passed by a wide majority.
We encourage all countries to lend their full support to the CTBT,
and to take the initiative in pursuing other measures including
negotiations amongst the P5 and special or ad-hoc committees, to
move toward the implementation of the recent decision of the ICJ
by the elimination of nuclear weapons.
Yours Respectfully, John Hallam Nuclear Campaigner, Friends of the
Earth Sydney, Australia.
