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From South Africa’s call for disarmament to the Marshall Islands’ demand for justice, nuclear weapons were in the spotlight at the UN General Assembly.
During the high pace, high level first week of the UN General Assembly, as well as the High-level Plenary Meeting commemorating the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, South Africa, Kazakhstan, the Marshall Islands and Kiribati brought attention to their different experiences of nuclear weapons.
South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Ronald Lamola, pointed to his country’s decision to dismantle its nuclear weapons programme. South Africa will preside over the first Review Conference of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) later this year, and Lamola offered its experience as proof that, “with political will, credible and verifiable nuclear disarmament is achievable.”
Kazakhstan’s Foreign Minister, Mukhtar Tileuberdi, drew on another national experience: the closure of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site and Kazakhstan’s getting rid of the nuclear arsenal it inherited after the Soviet Union collapsed. He warned that nuclear-armed states remain responsible for disarmament even when negotiations fail to produce agreement. “They remain responsible until we secure a world free of nuclear weapons,” he said.
The Marshall Islands spoke to the lasting consequences of nuclear testing. President Hilda Heine called on the UN to acknowledge and apologise for the harm caused by the 67 nuclear weapons tests conducted on the islands between 1946 and 1958, when they were under UN trusteeship. The effects on people, land and communities continue today.
Kiribati’s President, Taneti Maamau, likewise stressed that the human and environmental consequences of nuclear testing are still being felt across the Pacific. He highlighted Kiribati’s work with Kazakhstan on victim assistance and environmental remediation, including the push for an international trust fund to support affected communities.
During the High Level commemoration of the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, ICAN’s Executive Director Melissa Parke delivered a statement sharply criticizing the 9 nuclear-armed states, asking what they are doing to address this acute global danger. She said:
“Nothing to speak of. No disarmament negotiations. Not even modest risk reduction measures. Instead, they are squandering more than one hundred billion dollars a year enhancing and expanding their apocalyptic arsenals. For the first time since the end of the cold war, the total number of nuclear weapons is rising. Twelve thousand doomsday devices and counting.”
Together, these interventions set out the work ahead. When governments meet in New York for the first Review Conference of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) from 30 November to 4 December, they will have an opportunity to advance disarmament and strengthen support for communities living with the consequences of nuclear weapons. The countries that possess these weapons, and those whose policies provide political cover for them, must also be held responsible for efforts to eliminate them.