SEMINAR ON “NUCLEAR WEAPONS: GOVERNANCE AND ACCOUNTABILITY” HELD AT PALAIS DES NATIONS

Over 120 high-level representatives of Governments, the United Nations family, think tanks and academia participated today in a seminar entitled “Nuclear Weapons: Governance and Accountability”, co-chaired by Sergei A. Ordzhonikidze, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG), and Theodor H. Winkler, Director of the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces.

Noting that the Secretary-General had identified nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament as central to the United Nations’ work for the maintenance of peace and security, the Director-General stressed the need for a revival of disarmament. Mr. Ordzhonikidze said that recent international developments should serve as a “wake up call” to Governments and world public opinion, including media and non-governmental organizations, to pay more attention to the global regimes for nuclear arms control and disarmament. The Director-General concluded that the ultimate goal of control of nuclear weapons should be disarmament.

Keynote speaker Hans Blix, Chairman of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission, pointed to the discrepancy between the seeming will of the populations of major nuclear powers to eliminate all nuclear weapons (a goal endorsed by 73 per cent of Americans and 63 per cent of Russians, according to a recent poll) and ever rising military expenditures. Dr. Blix noted that billions of dollars were spent on preparing for military actions in space, threatening to “transform outer space from a tremendous asset for humanity into a junkyard”. He reiterated the Commission’s recommendation for States to agree on not placing any weapons in space. A missile shield was another example of a concept that had lost its rationale with the end of the Cold War. In Dr. Blix’s view, if such a shield was indeed intended to defend from ‘rogue states’, then the United States, Russia and China were better served by working together on this system. Dr. Blix also focused on international and national rules regarding the use of nuclear weapons, mentioning the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission’s recommendation for an international agreement committing states to refrain from the first use of nuclear weapons. He also suggested that the issue of a treaty on the non-proliferation of missiles be revisited.

Speakers and participants underlined that the discussion took place at a time of increasing international tensions and weakening mobilization against nuclear weapons. They reviewed the respective roles of the executive and legislative branches in decisions on the acquisition, financing, handling and use of nuclear weapons. The issue of where public opinion stood with regard to nuclear weapons and the extent to which this public opinion was shaped by perceived threats were also debated. The links between good domestic governance of nuclear weapons and the effectiveness of multilateral regimes for arms control and non-proliferation were explored, with many speakers emphasizing the need to revitalize national and international forums for discussion and negotiation on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.

A part of UNOG’s ongoing efforts to strengthen partnerships in support of the work of the United Nations, the seminar was the fifth in the series of joint events organized by UNOG and the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces. It followed on from previous debates on different aspects of security sector governance, which have served to raise awareness of the complexities and challenges in this field and have produced practical proposals to inform and guide future efforts.

For use of the information media; not an official record

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