|
Actions by Mayors for Peace leading up to negotiating conference for the establishment of a nuclear weapons ban treaty
|
Leading up to the adoption of the United Nations resolution to start negotiations on the establishment of a nuclear weapons ban treaty, a number of steps had to be taken.
At each of those different steps, Mayors for Peace made various appeals and communicated various messages.
【Open-ended Working Group】
|
|
OEWG meeting (February last year): Speech by the
Secretary-General Komizo
|
Three sessions of the Open-ended Working Group (OEWG) to Taking Forward Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament Negotiations were held last year in February, May and August at the United Nations Office in Geneva, Switzerland.
The aim of the meetings was to develop proposals on legal measures to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons.
Prior to each of these meetings, Mayors for Peace sent an open letter to all United Nations member states, asking that they participate proactively and hold constructive discussions for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
The letter also called for the United Nations to support Mayors for Peace activities.
|
In addition, Mayors for Peace Secretary-General Mr. Komizo (Chairperson of this Foundation) attended the meeting in February and President Matsui (Mayor of Hiroshima) attended the May meeting.
They said that rather than all states standing in opposition to one another, they should create an environment where discussions are conducted with respect for mutual understanding and diversity, and they can clearly resolve to abolish nuclear weapons.
At the August meeting, there was a large gap between the many non-nuclear weapon states asking for a prompt start to negotiations for the legal prohibition of nuclear weapons, and the states under the nuclear umbrella who said that it is too early to negotiate the legal prohibition of nuclear weapons because of security concerns.
Therefore, the adoption of the final report took a great deal of time.
On August 19, after the OEWG meeting had ended, a final report was adopted that recommended, with widespread support,
"the convening of a conference in 2017, open to all states, with the participation and contribution of international organizations and civil society, to negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination."
The report was adopted with two-thirds of the states in favor, and the meeting was closed.
|
OEWG meeting (May last year): President Matsui's
speech at the ceremony of the planting of A-bomb
survivor tree
OEWG meeting: Booth with information on the reality
of the damage from the atomic bomb
|
【The First Committee of the United Nations General Assembly】
In line with the United Nations General Assembly First Committee that was held at UN Headquarters in New York in October last year, Mayors for Peace issued a message to nuclear-armed states and those under the nuclear umbrella.
Citing the examples of the 1963 agreement between President Kennedy and Premier Khrushchev on the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and the 1986 discussion between President Reagan and Gorbachev on nuclear disarmament and elimination of intermediate-range nuclear missiles, the message called for the states to combine their courage and wisdom, exercise decisive leadership, and consider a security system that does not depend on nuclear weapons.
At the First Committee, a resolution calling for the start of negotiations on a nuclear weapons ban treaty was passed by a majority.
Mayors for Peace reaffirmed to member cities the important role that Mayors for Peace plays as a bipartisan organization in the realization of the sincere wish of the hibakusha for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Mayors for Peace also called on member cities to lobby policymakers in their own countries to actively participate in negotiations so that the discussion will make progress.
【The United Nations General Assembly】
The key points of the resolution passed at the United Nations General Assembly in December last year on the start of negotiations for the establishment of a nuclear weapons convention are:
(1) negotiations will be held on legal measures for the prohibition of nuclear weapons in New York in March and June, 2017,
(2) the decisions will be determined by majority vote at the conference in accordance with UNGA procedures, and
(3) representatives of civic society will participate and contribute to the conferences.
|
Leading up to the negotiation conference
|
|
|
Preparatory committee for the negotiations conference
(February this year)
|
Mayors for Peace sees the negotiation conference as a major step toward the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Firstly, in order to provide support to ensure that the discussion at the negotiation conference in March, 2017 moves in a positive direction, Mayors for Peace issued an open letter to all states, including nuclear-armed states and those under the nuclear umbrella, calling for them to proactively participate in the conference and earnestly engage in the negotiations.
At the same time, Mayors for Peace called for all member cities to communicate this and lobby their own
national governments. Mayors for Peace
|
Secretary-General Mr. Komizo attended the March meeting, and made various requests, asking that the opinions of citizens and NGOs of the 7,200 member municipalities, who wish for the abolition of nuclear weapons, are reflected in the discussions at the conference.
Mayor Matsui will attend the July meeting and make an appeal to the world's policymakers to see a nuclear weapons ban treaty as a realistic approach toward the abolition of nuclear weapons, and to go beyond differences in position and opinion to implement measures for the establishment of such a treaty.
Through meetings with national governments and NGO representatives, we would like to call for collaboration with Mayors for Peace.
|
|
| (Peace and International Solidarity Promotion Division) |
|
|
|
