Britain poised to vote against multilateral nuclear disarmament
The General Assembly of the United Nations is now discussing a resolution on multilateral nuclear disarmament. Although the vast majority of countries in the world are supporting this, Britain voted against the draft resolution at the Committee stage on 10th November.
The resolution now goes before the plenary session of the General Assembly in early December where the main vote will be taken.
The Labour Party election manifesto promised to: "press for multilateral negotiations towards mutual, balanced and verifiable reductions in nuclear weapons." On 6th November the Foreign Office Minister Tony Lloyd said in the House of Commons: "Our approach to multilateral disarmament will not be grudging and it will not be one that plays up the obstacles to progress in order to leave things as they are. We intend to be a constructive actor in the process, using our influence to move things forward where we can."
But so far the government are on course to obstruct this move towards multilateral disarmament. The resolution on the table at the UN is as follows:
Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice on the legality of the threat or use of nuclear weapons.
The General Assembly,
Recalling its resolutions 49/75 K of 15 December 1994 and 51/45 M of 10 December 1996,
Convinced that the continuing existence of nuclear weapons poses a threat to all humanity and that their use would have catastrophic consequences for all life on Earth and recognizing that the only defence against a nuclear catastrophe is the total elimination of nuclear weapons and the certainty that they will never be produced again,
Mindful of the solemn obligations of States Parties, undertaken in Article VI of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, particularly to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament;
Recalling the Principles and Objectives for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament adopted at the 1995 Review and Extension Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and in particular the objective of determined pursuit by the nuclear weapon States of systematic and progressive efforts to reduce nuclear weapons globally, with the ultimate goal of eliminating those weapons;
Recalling also the adoption of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty in its resolution 50/245 on 10 September 1996;
Recognizing with satisfaction that the Antarctic treaty and the treaties of Tlatelolco, Rarotonga, Bangkok and Pelindaba are gradually freeing the entire southern hemisphere and adjacent areas covered by those treaties from nuclear weapons,
Noting the efforts by the States possessing the largest inventories of nuclear weapons to reduce their stockpiles of such weapons through bilateral and unilateral agreements or arrangements, and calling for the intensification of such efforts to accelerate the significant reduction of nuclear weapons arsenals,
Recognizing the need for a multilaterally negotiated and legally binding instrument to assure non-nuclear weapon States against the threat or use of nuclear weapons,
Reaffirming the central role of the Conference on Disarmament as the single multilateral disarmament negotiating forum and regretting the lack of progress in disarmament negotiations, particularly nuclear disarmament in the Conference on Disarmament during its 1997 session,
Emphasizing the need for the Conference on Disarmament to commence negotiations on a phased programme for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons with a specified framework of time,
Desiring to achieve the objective of a legally binding prohibition of the development, production, testing, deployment, stockpiling, threat or use of nuclear weapons and their destruction under effective international control,
Recalling the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, issued on 8 July 1996,
1. Underlines once again the unanimous decision of the Court that there exists an obligation to pursue in good faith and bring to a conclusion negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament in all its aspects under strict and effective international control;
2.Calls upon once again all States to immediately fulfill that obligation by commencing multilateral negotiations in 1998 leading to an early conclusion of a Nuclear Weapons Convention prohibiting the development, production, testing, deployment, stockpiling, transfer, threat or use of nuclear weapons and providing for their elimination;
3. Requests all States to inform the Secretary-General of the efforts and measures they have taken on the implementation of this resolution and nuclear disarmament, and requests the Secretary-General to appraise the General Assembly of that information at its fifty-third session;
4. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its fifty-second session the item entitled AFollow up to the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons.