International Network of Engineers and Scientists Against Proliferation

Bulletin 18 - News

Nuclear Weapon-Free Zones:
Crucial Steps Towards a Nuclear-Free World

The Uppsala Declaration on Nuclear Weapon-Free Zones

A decade after the end of the Cold War, the world faces a stark choice: achieve the complete abolition of nuclear weapons, or face a second Nuclear Age with new generations of even more horrifying nuclear and other high-tech weapons.

We believe there is an urgent moral, political, legal and security imperative to abolish these weapons, and build a strong momentum towards complete global nuclear disarmament. This is a precondition for human and environmental security.

Therefore, more than 50 scholars, peace activists, diplomats and experts from six continents met on September 1 - 4, 2000, at Uppsala in Sweden. The conference, convened by the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, the Transnational Institute, Peace Depot, Gensuikin (Japan Congress Against A- & H-Bombs) and INESAP (International Network of Engineers & Scientists Against Proliferation), discussed the feasibility of establishing Nuclear Weapon-Free Zones (NWFZs) across the world.

The dramatic threat of a new Nuclear Age highlights the urgent need for comprehensive nuclear disarmament and rapid destruction of the arsenals of all nuclear weapons-states. It also calls for incremental measures towards these goals. These include a nuclear test ban, a missile flight test ban, separation of warheads from missiles, a ban on the production of fissile materials used for making nuclear weapons and appropriate disposal or safeguarding of the accumulated stockpiles of such material.

Crucial among these transitional measures are Nuclear Weapon-Free Zones. These would ban the manufacture, deployment and transit of nuclear weapons in specific regions, and demand of nuclear armed states that the zones not be threatened or attacked with nuclear weapons. This would help make it possible to permanently fold the nuclear umbrella, the so-called nuclear protection that nuclear weapon states offer non-nuclear allies.

Such zones already exist in Latin America, the South Pacific, Africa, and Southeast Asia. They have prevented nuclear proliferation in those areas. A new zone is currently being negotiated in Central Asia. Several regions continue to face severe nuclear dangers, a challenge exacerbated by menacing attempts to build both National and Theatre Missile Defence systems. These regions include Northeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Europe. The creation of NWFZs here would not only limit proliferation, but support active nuclear disarmament with the dismantling of overt and clandestine nuclear weapons and fissile stocks and rolling back existing nuclear programmes. Such extension of NWFZs to the Northern hemisphere will enhance collective security and strengthen efforts to completely eliminate nuclear weapons.

An NWFZ treaty in Northeast Asia would effectively address security concerns in Japan and the Korean peninsula. A South Asian NWFZ would prevent India and Pakistan from making or deploying nuclear weapons in this volatile region, where the danger of a nuclear exchange is today the greatest anywhere in the world. In the Middle East, the establishment of a zone free of Israel's nuclear weapons, and all other weapons of mass destruction in the region, represents a key component of regional security. In Central and Eastern Europe an NWFZ would defend the post-Cold War peace gains now threatened by NATO expansion as well as facilitate withdrawal of remaining tactical nuclear weapons.

There are no technological obstacles to effective verification of NWFZ agreements. Establishing such zones requires political will, organisation and mobilisation. We hereby commit ourselves to:
Creating a Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone Network to coordinate efforts in support of new and existing zones, including actively advocating the creation of NWFZs in Central Asia, Northeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East and Central Europe.
Public education on the horrors of nuclear weapons, the urgency of nuclear disarmament and the value of NWFZs.
Supporting the Latin American proposal to the United Nations General Assembly for an international conference of all parties to the Nuclear Weapon-Free Zones.
Strengthening the existing zones and demanding strict adherence to the treaty provisions by the nuclear weapon-states.
Engaging policy-makers and parliamentarians worldwide in support of NWFZs.
Supporting single-country nuclear weapon-free zones.
Supporting nuclear-free cities, provinces, and other areas governed by local authorities.
Opposing Theatre and National Missile Defence systems as an integral part of our opposition to nuclear weapons.
Working to defend nuclear whistleblowers, such as Mordechai Vanunu, now entering his 15^th year of imprisonment for having revealed Israel's nuclear arsenal; we demand his immediate release.

Peoples and governments everywhere, as well as the United Nations, have a contribution to make to the creation and expansion of nuclear weapon-free zones. We urge others to join us in mobilising energies and resources towards achieving the noble goal of global nuclear disarmament.

Conference calls for Nuclear Weapon-Free Zones with Emphasis on South Asia, Northeast Asia, the Middle East and Central Europe

Press Release, 4 September 2000 Uppsala (Sweden)

An International Seminar, attended by more than 50 scholars, experts, activists and diplomats from six continents, has called for Nuclear Weapons-Free Zones (NWFZs) to be established all over the world as transitional steps towards complete nuclear abolition. It underscored the urgency of such zones particularly in South Asia, Northeast Asia, the Middle East and Central Europe.

The Seminar, held between September 1 and 4 at Uppsala, was inaugurated by United Nations Undersecretary General for Disarmament Affairs, Jayantha Dhanapala, who delivered the keynote address. It deliberated on the moral, political, legal and security imperative of nuclear weapons abolition, highlighting the need for both comprehensive and incremental measures of disarmament.

"At a time when some 30,000 nuclear weapons remain, NWFZs offer one of the few activities open to non-nuclear-weapon States not just to quarantine themselves from the nuclear contagion, but to pool their efforts to resist it," said Mr Dhanapala.

The Seminar participants were unanimous that a decade after the Cold War, the world faces a stark choice: achieve complete nuclear abolition, or face a second Nuclear Age with new generations of even more horrifying nuclear and other high-tech weapons.

NWFZs, which ban the manufacture, deployment and transit of nuclear weapons in specific regions, and make them safe from nuclear attacks and threats from the nuclear weapons-states, are an important step towards nuclear abolition. Treaties to establish NWFZs have so far been reached in respect of Latin America (1967), South Pacific (1985), Africa (1996) and Southeast Asia (1997).

"It is imperative that the treaties come into force fully and that the Nuclear Powers strictly adhere to their protocols," said Olle Nordberg, Executive Director of the Dag Hammarskjoeld Foundation, the Seminar host and one of its five international co-sponsors.

"But it is even more crucial that the concept of NWFZs is itself radically transformed: from a measure of non-proliferation to a pro-active means of nuclear disarmament, i.e. thinning out, removal and actual dismantling of nuclear weapons where they already exist", Mr Nordberg said.

After reviewing recent developments in disarmament negotiations, as well as the working of the existing NWFZs, the Seminar discussed at length the possibilities of such a transformation at a conceptual and practical level, especially as regards five specific zones.

In Central Asia, the emergence of a zone treaty, which seemed imminent, now faces some political obstacles. These need to be overcome.

In Northeast Asia, with Japan and the two Koreas at its centre, an NWFZ would offer the best guarantee of security without nuclear weapons while ensuring that no country crosses the nuclear threshold. "This is an eminently sensible proposal," said Hiro Umebayashi of Japanese civil society group, Peace Depot.

In volatile South Asia, which witnessed a nuclear breakout with the Indian and Pakistani tests of 1998, an NWFZ could prevent the deployment of nuclear weapons. "The demand for such a zone has been made for over 20 years in UN resolutions," said Achin Vanaik and Praful Bidwai, Indian anti-nuclear campaigners and initiators of the seminar. "Today a South Asian NWFZ is more relevant than ever."

In the Middle East, the establishment of a zone free of Israel's nuclear weapons, and all other weapons of mass destruction would be a key component of regional security. Said Fawzy H. Hammad, former chairman of Egypt's atomic energy commission: "All the participants from our region agree that a zone free of all mass-destruction weapons is a realistic step forward."

In Central and Eastern Europe, an NWFZ would defend the post-Cold War peace gains now threatened by NATO expansion and facilitate withdrawal of remaining tactical nuclear weapons. Fiona Dove, director of the Amsterdam-based Transnational Institute, another Seminar co-sponsor, said: "A Central European NWFZ would greatly enhance security and impel NATO de-nuclearisation in Europe".

NWFZs have an advantage over other transitional measures towards disarmament. They involve a concerted effort by a whole region towards a common security structure. They carry the potential to include non-signatories to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. They do not suffer from the infirmities of the NPT, which does not impose effective disarmament obligations upon the nuclear states.

The Seminar participants emphasised the tremendous public education as well as disarmament potential of NWFZs. They welcomed declarations of nuclear weapons-free cities and local authorities. "Such nuclear-free areas have great moral and political value although lacking legal force", said Masa Takubo of Gensuikin (Japan Congress against A- and H-Bombs).

The Seminar also discussed the issue of verification of NWFZ agreements and concluded on the basis of expert opinion that fairly reliable and accessible technological means exist to verify that all concerned states comply with their obligations.

Seminar participants, who included a variety of civil society groups and campaigning organisations, underscored the relevance of the long-standing demand for a Nordic NWFZ and the concept of 'single-state' NWFZs being advocated for countries as varied as Austria, Mongolia and Sweden.

The participants dedicated themselves to campaigning for NWFZs in different forums, global, regional and national. In the Uppsala Declaration they adopted (attached below), they outlined a programme of future activities, including regional-level campaigns, publications and creation of a Website.

The Declaration and Press Release are the result of an international seminar that took place on September 1 - 4, 2000, in Uppsala, Sweden. The Seminar was sponsored by the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation and co-convened by Gensuikin, Peace Depot, Transnational Institute, and INESAP.

For more information:
Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, Övre Slottsgatan 2, 75310 Uppsala, Sweden, tel. +46-18-12 88 72, secretariat@dhf.uu.se.