International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons

London (ICAN)
With the 2010 review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in its sights, a new international nuclear disarmament commission led by two former foreign ministers is scheduled to begin work in October.

Gareth Evans from Australia and Yoriko Kawaguchi from Japan are currently recruiting members for the body that will be called the International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament.

In a press conference held in Tokyo on the 25th August, Kawaguchi said that it was "extremely important for Japan, the only victim of nuclear attacks, to aim to build a world without nuclear weapons".

The main focus of the new commission, which was spearheaded by the Australian government and is supported by Tokyo, is to strengthen support for what is seen as a weakening NPT.

India, which along with Pakistan and Israel is one of the three countries who have not signed the 1968 treaty, recently concluded a much criticized nuclear energy agreement with Washington.

Members of the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group have so far hamstrung the deal, which is a reversal of the U.S. position excluding any sale of nuclear technology or fuel to those nations who have not signed the treaty. It is also seen as an opportunity for the U.S. to apply pressure on New Delhi to eventually sign the treaty and join the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

Joseph Mutti, a spokesperson for the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), commented that the Commission was an important step that would strengthen ICAN's preparation for an international Nuclear Weapons Convention in 2010.

The International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and
Disarmament is expected to be formed of 16 members from both nuclear and non-nuclear nations and work to include those nations developing nuclear programmes which either violate or ignore provisions of the NPT.