CONFERENCE HEARS STATEMENTS ON HIROSHIMA ANNIVERSARY AND FROM NEW REPRESENTATIVE OF FRANCE AND INFORMAL GROUP OF OBSERVER STATES

The Conference on Disarmament this morning heard statements from Japan commemorating the seventieth anniversary of the atomic bombing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, from the new Permanent Representative of France to the Conference, from Latvia on behalf of the Informal Group of Observer States which presented a Working Paper on the Enlargement of the Conference, and from China, Slovenia, Greece, Portugal and Turkey.

Japan was represented by a high school student from Hiroshima who said 22 high school students, including herself, had been appointed as “Youth Communicators for a World without Nuclear Weapons” by the Japanese Government. Today, she would like to inform the Conference of the horror caused by atomic bombings over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and to renew their call for the total elimination of nuclear weapons.

China appreciated the students’ high sense of responsibility for peace and underlined the importance of having a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of history and profound reflection on the causes of that war in order to learn the appropriate lessons from history and avoid the recurrence of such tragedy.

Alice Guitton, the new Permanent Representative of France to the Conference on Disarmament, said a philosopher she appreciated had said “we are all infinitely responsible towards others”. This notion of responsibility should be stressed because disarmament goals needed to be infinitely linked to the goals of stability, peace and national security. Reciprocity, transparency and political will needed to inspire all their efforts and it was in this spirit that she wished to confirm France’s will to work actively and tirelessly with the Conference to make intangible progress in this forum. This was a heavy task.

Latvia, speaking on behalf of the 38 States making up the Informal Group of Observer States, introduced to the Conference a Working Paper on Enlargement, in which they had noted down some of the most important questions that they had been raising throughout years on the enlargement of the Conference. The Informal Group of Observer States called on the Member States of the Conference to undertake such discussion in 2016, which would help find answers to questions, some of which were already included in the Working Paper.

Slovenia, Portugal, and Turkey also spoke.

The next public plenary of the Conference will be on Friday, 21 August at 10 a.m.

Statements

Japan introduced a high school student from Hiroshima who would take the floor as a member of the delegation of Japan. Tsugumi Inoue was visiting Geneva together with other “Youth Communicators for a World Without Nuclear Weapons”, commissioned by the Japanese Foreign Minister. Their main mission was to relay the harsh experience of Hibaku-sha across national borders and generations. They had volunteered from different regions of Japan and acted as “Hiroshima Nagasaki Peace Messengers”, running a campaign to collect signatures in Japan for the sake of a world free of nuclear weapons, which were submitted to the United Nations in Geneva every year. An event commemorating the seventieth year of the atomic bombing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki would be held this afternoon.

TSUGUMI INOUE said 22 high school students, including herself, had been appointed as “Youth Communicators for a World without Nuclear Weapons” by the Japanese Government. Today, she would like to inform the Conference of the horror caused by atomic bombings over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and to renew their call for the total elimination of nuclear weapons. The atomic bombings completely destroyed the entire cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Between August and the end of 1945, approximately 140,000 people in Hiroshima and 70,000 people in Nagasaki lost their precious lives. All survivors were harmed, burned, poisoned or injured. Presently, radiation continued to impair all the survivors’ bodies even after 70 years had passed. She had a strong sense of responsibility since she had an atomic bomb survivor as part of her family. The strongest wish of the survivors was to have “no more war in the future.” It was her mission to convey their message to people around the world.

China said the annual visit by the students always reminded the Conference of this dark period during the last century. China appreciated their high sense of responsibility for peace. This year marked the seventieth anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the seventieth anniversary of the victory of the world anti-fascist war. An old saying from China said that past history if not forgotten served as guidance for the future. To not forget the war was to safeguard peace. Only with a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of history and profound reflection on the causes of that war could they learn the appropriate lessons from history and avoid the recurrence of such tragedy. The two atomic bombings 70 years ago caused insurmountable suffering to the innocent local civilians and the war that ended 70 years ago also brought immeasurable disaster to the peoples of many countries of the world. After 70 years the innocent civilians who suffered from the war were still haunted, those included you, your parents and grandparents, the survivors of the Nanjing massacre and the Auschwitz concentration camps, as well as those much humiliated and trampled on, so-called comfort women and their families. All must make efforts to oppose all wars and safeguard peace.

ALICE GUITTON, Permanent Representative of France to the Conference on Disarmament, said a philosopher she appreciated said “we are all infinitely responsible towards others”. This notion of responsibility should be stressed because disarmament goals needed to be infinitely linked to the goals of stability, peace and national security. Reciprocity, transparency and political will needed to inspire all their efforts and it was in this spirit that she wished to confirm France’s will to work actively and tirelessly with the Conference to make intangible progress in this forum. This was a heavy task. It had been some months since the failure of the Ninth Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference last spring, and there was also understandable frustration expressed about the deadlock in the Conference on Disarmament for too long. Despite that they should not lose any trust or faith in this forum as the Conference was and needed to remain the only multilateral body responsible for negotiating universal disarmament treaties. The Conference had three characteristics that made in irreplaceable: its expertise, the representation of all States which had key capacities, and this rule of consensus. These specificities were the guarantor of the participation of all States and in respect of their legitimate security interests, they formed the assurance that the agreements negotiated would be applied by all those who adopted them.

Latvia, speaking on behalf of the 38 States making up the Informal Group of Observer States, said she would like to introduce to the Conference a Working Paper on Enlargement prepared by the Informal Group of Observer States. In this paper, they had noted down some of the most important questions that they had been raising throughout years on the enlargement of the Conference. They believed that the 15 years that had passed since the last enlargement was too long a time period to have passed without any substantial discussion on this question. The Informal Group of Observer States called on the Member States of the Conference to undertake such discussion in 2016, which would help find answers to questions, some of which were already included in the Working Paper. The Conference on Disarmament must evolve to ensure that universality, transparency and multilateralism were the values that truly defined work on disarmament and arms control issues at the United Nations. The Group welcomed a frank discussion on the questions raised in the Working Paper.

The Secretary of the Conference said the Working Paper had been received yesterday and it would be circulated as a working document of the Conference as soon as it was translated in all official languages.

Slovenia strongly supported the statement by the Informal Group of Observer States, which was in the first phase the beginning of substantive discussion on enlargement of the Conference. Slovenia urged the Conference to adopt a programme of work and start the work for which it had an exclusive mandate, to negotiate multilateral disarmament agreements.

Portugal wanted to add its voice to Latvia and Slovenia in introducing this Working Paper which it hoped would benefit from the attention of all Member States. Portugal also welcomed the new Permanent Representative of France to the Conference and echoed her statement on the issues of mutual responsibility, reciprocity and transparency in their work on disarmament and arms control.

Greece supported what the previous speakers had said.

Turkey underlined that Turkey’s priority was to assume the work of the Conference on Disarmament to negotiate legally binding treaties; the adoption of a programme of work in that respect was still a priority for Turkey. This did not undermine the importance of other issues. However, bringing back the Conference to its negotiating mandate was the most important of all. The views of Turkey on the expansion of the Conference were well known. Turkey was more than willing to look at the issue of expansion as soon as a programme of work was adopted and negotiations were underway.


For use of the information media; not an official record

DC15/038E