ICNND report welcome but doesn't go far enough

Media release: December 15, 2009

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd joined Japanese counterpart Yukio Hatoyama in Tokyo today to receive the major report of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND).

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) welcomes the report however believes it falls short on eliminating the nuclear threat. ICAN is concerned that the recommendations do not go far or fast enough towards getting the world to zero nuclear weapons. Released during the final days of Copenhagen, the report also heavily promotes nuclear power without sufficiently addressing dangerous proliferation risks.

ICAN Australia Chair, Associate Professor Tilman Ruff said, “What is needed is a clear roadmap to eliminating and outlawing nuclear weapons.  ICAN along with many other civil society organisations around the world advocates a Nuclear Weapons Convention (NWC), a comprehensive global treaty to get the world to zero nuclear weapons.  

“While the Commission recognises the need for a NWC, it does not envisage one being negotiated until around 2025. This undermines the urgency of getting to zero,” says Associate Professor Ruff.

The Commission advocates reducing current arsenals by around 90% by 2025.   This would still leave 20 times the number of nuclear weapons capable of causing unprecedented global climate change likely to persist for a decade and trigger catastrophic famine.

ICAN Campaign Director Dimity Hawkins said, “While we welcome the contribution of the ICNND and recognise that nuclear weapons need to come down in stages, the Commission’s target of 2000 remaining nuclear weapons by 2025 is still an enormous destructive capacity when we know what each of those could obliterate a city.”

“The vast majority of the international community expects to see a world free of these weapons. If it is achievable and realistic to make 90% reductions by 2025, why not go to zero?,” said Ms Hawkins. “For any nuclear weapon state to maintain a nuclear arsenal in 15 years time, no matter what size, fails to meet the expectations of the international community. It is simply is not far enough nor fast enough to talk of a minimisation point in 2025, with around 2,000 nuclear weapons still in the arsenals of nine states.”

“It is also contradictory for the Commission to promote nuclear power without solutions in place to control the dual processes of uranium enrichment and reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel to extract plutonium,” continued Associate Professor Ruff. “This will only serve to exacerbate proliferation dangers.” 

“Achieving and sustaining a world free of nuclear weapons would be much easier and quicker in a world in which nuclear power was being phased out,” said Associate Professor Ruff.

“Despite these concerns, ICAN recognizes the substantial efforts of the ICNND towards building a case for disarmament and we welcome the emphasis on the role of civil society. ICAN Australia urges Prime Minister Rudd to act in accelerating the ICNND’s timetable all the way to a world free of nuclear weapons,” concluded Associate Professor Ruff.

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