Summary: Working Group on Peace and Disarmament

How to engage with disarmament issues

The panel presentations offered an indication of the broad spectrum of issues and different weapon systems (such as nuclear weapons, landmines and small arms) that civil society needs to work on when engaging in disarmament. 

Challenges of Nuclear Disarmament
Mr. Alyn Ware of IALANA, offered a range of facts and figures indicating the scale and urgency of the need to work on nuclear disarmament -with 30,000 nuclear weapons stockpiled, the threat of their use becoming more real, and eight nuclear states in the world today with a combined firepower of 200,000 Hiroshima-sized bombs. His presentation summarized the not-so-bright current state of affairs regarding nuclear disarmament, referring to the US nuclear posture review and ABM systems. The second part of his presentation referred to positive experiences, success stories and signs of hope. It included reference to the Trident Ploughshares case and the World Court Project (by which the International Court of Justice issued a historic opinion noting that the use of nuclear weapons was generally illegal and that states have an obligation to negotiate for complete nuclear disarmament). Mr. Ware concluded by drawing the audience's attention to existing organizations and networks engaged in nuclear disarmament, such as Abolition 2000 and PNND (Parliamentarians Network for Nuclear Disarmament) and by underlining that if we work strategically and engage with a variety of actors, nuclear disarmament is possible in our lifetimes.

Kenya Campaign to Ban Landmines
Ms. Mereso Agina, of Kenya Campaign to Ban Landmines, offered an insight into the work done by her organization in Kenya, which involves a broad coalition of organizations and civil society groups, including women, youth, churches and lawyers, and highlighted their work on landmines, as well as small arms. Ms. Agina also reminded participants of the importance of strategically engaging different agents and departments in the fight against landmines, such as the health or food department of their country, since they each have an important stake in the issue. Collaboration with the health department, for instance, is justified when assessing the shortage of resources and blood for transfusions they have in the Kenyan hospitals, and on how decreasing the number of mines victims frees these resources for other urgent causes, such as the HIV/AIDS epidemic. On the issue of the small arms problem, Ms. Agina stressed that it is not a one-country issue and that cross-border policing is extremely important, engaging national governments, as well as those of the wider region and the military. Ms. Agina concluded by underlining the importance of working on human security, particularly in Western Africa, in addressing the root causes of war and violence, and on working on poverty alleviation, democracy and respect for human rights, for disarmament work cannot be effective in a vacuum.

Mine Ban Treaty (Ottawa Convention)
The last presentation traced back the origins of the ICBL, the Mine Ban Treaty (Ottawa Convention) and its gaps. But the most important contribution of Ms. Elizabeth Reusse-Decrey, of the Swiss Campaign to Ban Landmines, was perhaps her stressing the importance of involving Non-State Actors (NSAs) -e.g. guerrillas, rebel groups- in disarmament work. This is considered crucial because of the number of NSAs who use and produce mines and the territories that are mine-filled under NSA control, and also because NSAs cannot sign conventions and agreements conventionally addressed to governments. In this context, Ms. Reusse-Decrey introduced the 'Geneva Call', an NGO that focuses on engaging NSAs in landmine disarmament work, and explored some of the challenges, solutions and perspectives that have come out of their research and experience so far, as well as the tools and strategies they use. Ms. Reusse-Decrey concluded by pointing to some of the achievements of the Geneva Call, namely that of increasing recognition of the importance of including NSAs (a controversial struggle, particularly from the perspective of governments) and a number of 'success stories' such as the European Parliament resolution and the process in Sudan.

Surprising issues
One particularly interesting aspect was the importance of engaging Non-State Actors in disarmament —within the perspective of viewing them not only as part of the problem, but also as part of the solution.

Interesting questions
One question made reference to the importance of working on those countries and agents that are selling arms. Question: Are there any arms-manufacturing countries within Africa or are most of their arms imported? Answer: Egypt is still a major small arms manufacturer.

Conclusions
All speakers agreed on the importance of disarmament education, in each of the mentioned areas, so as to raise awareness of the problems and engage a wider spectrum of civil society in finding solutions. Within this context, the Chair emphasized the importance of the UN Study of Disarmament Education, which will be published in October 2002.

Also see: Constat d’échec de la politique de désarmement dans le monde

Presenters' Documents Available

16.13_agina_mereso.doc (41 K)

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